Dare I say it again, it hasn't been a great year, not for me anyways, I recognise there's been some games that people like, but not much for me personally. If I could give it to my favourite game I've played this year the prestigious award would go straight to Dave the diver, Probably my favourite rogue like, granted I usually don't like them, but the story and sushi bar aspects kept me hooked, I loved it. Alas, the game was originally released in 2023, so by my own self imposed rules Dave the Diver is ineligible from winning, just pretend it came second last year.
This has been a year of playing games from previous years from me, Sonic generations remaster, forgotten city, Fallout 4, vice city, all the Timesplitters, Sleeping dogs, Gears 2 and more, many of which had played before.
In terms of games that actually came out this year, there's a few to mention before I get to the nominees the first of which is Pennys big breakaway. This game came highly recommended and was made by former Sonic team members, must be good, right? Well, I played a couple of hours and wasn't keen, I would like to expand on these options, but due to a pairing of having a terrible memory and this game being so un-noteworthy (is that a word), I can barely remember anything about it, other than it was a 3D platformer and I was disappointed. Speaking of Disappointment, The Plucky Squire, another game with hype and due to playing it more recently and extensively I do actually remember it. it was fine, some interesting concepts of playing through as a child's story book, escaping to a 3D world, unfortunately the gameplay was kinda nothing so passed by as a pretty average game. Speaking of games with a lot of hype, Still wakes the deep. I have never liked horror games where you cannot defend yourself, Outlast, Amnesia and so on, really cannot be bothered with the moving forward 10 feet, then hiding, then repeat for 10 hours, not for me, especially for someone so desensitised to horror with the ridiculous amount of horror films I watch. That being said, as far as that type of horror game goes, I did actually like this one, mainly from the story and setting, I liked exploring the of rig and the character interactions were great and thankfully the enemy interactions were kept to a minimum. I must mention I would never have played this game if It wasn't on Game pass due to the previously mentioned issues.
Okay, on to actually honourable mentions. Firstly, the Call of duty campaign, another game I would not have played without game pass. I have not played a COD game in many years, the last one I think was the Kevin Spacey one, can't remember what it was called now, I could Google it, but that would probably take a whole 5 seconds, and who can be bothered with that? Anyway, great campaign, a nice variety of missions and thankfully this was not a military shooter as they always had been (from what I had played anyways) but more of an espionage story, set across many different types of level, including an Oceans 11 type level and even a drug induces horror level and I loved the feel of the shooting, particularly the sounds of the gunfire. All that said, I can't include it because the second I tried playing online, I got, as the kids don't say, 'owned' as the kids don't say anymore.
The other game to mention is Balatro, another rogue like that I really enjoyed (2 in one year, didn't see that coming). On paper a poker game, but with joker cards that increase scoring and levelling up of cards and other special cards that move it far beyond regular poker, and something that can actually be enjoyed without copious amounts of alcohol, though it helps!
Additional late entry, Viewfinder, I hadn't played it until I'd mostly finished writing whatever rambling nonsense this is, but its a good first person puzzle game (love 'em) with interesting new puzzle ideas. It looks beautiful as well, Story, meh, not so great. It's a good game, but not finalist worthy. Right, time for the big 4
Silent Hill 2
Certainly a weird one, I liked it, then I disliked it, then I loved it. Going in I had never played a single Silent Hill game and I had absolutely no belief in the developer Bloober team due to a succession of mediocre to crap games, but reviews said it's good, and who can argue with that? Well, anyone, but if it's a survival horror (where you can actually fight back!) then I'm DTF (down to fun (does that work (no, obviously)).
So going in I loved the creepiness and setup, game looked great and story was fascinating, but then as the game moved towards the middle third, repeatedly blocked off areas of the map that lead me to having to look up a guide to figure out where to go, coupled with way too many combat encounters when the combat was not great really dragged the game down to a slog and on the cusp of putting it down. Thankfully, the final level hotel changed everything, finally the enemy encounters became less frequent and I could figure out what was actually going on in the story really left me on a high with the game which seemed unlikely at the mid section of the game, but by the end this yet another survival horror remake that has earned it's place on the shortlist.
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Turnip Boy robs a Bank
Roguelikes, love them or hate them? I feel both ways depending on the game, Rogue legacy, yes, Dead cells? no. Why? Dunno. Anyways, the first game was a pleasant Game pass surprise, a simple twin stick shooter of sorts, not a lot really happened, just simple missions with entertaining dialogue, but this time the action has been ramped up and is now a legit twin stick shooter.
You're here to rob a bank and have to go through several areas to finish your objective, and will take many tries, and it has all the classic elements you may or may not like, upgrades, collectables etc. It's a top down roguelike and it's better than Hades (in my opinion (more Pyre Please Supermassive)).
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
I'm not an Indiana Jones fan, I've seen the original trilogy as many times as I have seen Crystal scull (one), so I was not going to this one as an Indie Lover, nor was I big fan on the Modern Wolfenstein games (Machine games previous works), so yet again would not have played this were it not on Game pass, but thankfully it was.
I've heard this describes as an 'immersive sim' ala Bioshock or Dishonoured. I kind of see it but also not, though I'm not sure how I would define it. There's much exploring and backtracking, puzzles to solve, guitars to smash and stealth to be stealthed, and all these small elements come together to form one glorious whole. This is a slow game, in a good way (not a PlayStation studios way), taking time to look around for objectives and different ways to approach them is the order of the day. By far the stand out parts of the game are the open areas sections, and not the end of level, more linear sections, where the game shines for me.
The small amounts of combat make it a nice change from the vast majority of games out there, I barely used a gun outside of when you had no choice, relying on melee weapons and sneaking. This is a great change of pace from your standard action game and indeed far removed from the Wolfenstein series the Studio is best known for. Btw, great impression of Harrison Ford by Troy Baker.
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Astro Bot
A much beloved entry by seemingly the whole world, the third instalment in this series, not that many played the first one, but the free game that came with the PS5 made this series stand out in a way that Bugsnax did not, so the sequel was much anticipated and did not disappoint.
A great, if easy 3D platformer and one of the best looking games I've seen which is backed up by a great soundtrack. Despite the game being easy in the most part, there are a handful of challenge levels out there if you want to be a completionist (I got the platinum) and a final challenge that is also tough albeit not the toughest level of them all. On top of the mixture of easy fun and challengingly fun levels are PlayStation history levels, ones based on Ape escape, God of was and more which are interesting. Kudos to the free content that was being added after the games release as well. This is a great love letter to PlayStation history and the game PlayStation Allstar Battle royale wishes it was.
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And the winner is, Indiana Jones, A unique experience among a sea of not so unique games that exist nowadays, I get it, everything has already been made and it's tough to come up with something brand new, yet clearly it is possible, even from a team I was never fond of and an IP that I'm totally indifferent on.
2025 is going to be a great year for games btw, This is May at time of writing and I'm balls deep in the Oblivion remake and loving it. Surely I wont be coming back next year and opening with the same old complaint, will I...
2013: The Last of us
2014: South Park the Stick of Truth
2015: Rocket League
2016: Doom
2017: A Hat in Time
2018: God of war
2019: Resident Evil 2 remake
2020: Maneater
2021: Guardians of the Galaxy
2022: Nobody Saves the World
2023: Resident Evil 4 Remake
2024: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Wow, not naming any names but not all years are equal apparently.
