From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

I suspect we didn't get this one because Spalls already posted the
subject, but he put the wrong date, as it was for 2023 not 2024. Hey
we've had a year to play the games released in 2024 now at least. Still
only two I've played after a year that were released in 2024.

What did you play that was released in 2024 and/or was new to your that
year that was the best.

NOMINIES FOR RELEASED IN 2024 (NP = Not Played, NF = Not Finished)
(Random things random websites & reddit mentioned)

Hades 2 - NP I'm lukewarm on it, need to finish 1 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145350/Hades_II/

Black Myth: Wukong - NP sounds overpriced, waiting on sale. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2358720/Black_Myth_Wukong/

Helldivers 2 - NP looks cool, but I'm wary of survival https://store.steampowered.com/app/553850/HELLDIVERS_2/

Pacific Drive - NP Need to try this. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/

SKALD: Against the Black Priory - NP Indy retro RPG *shrug* https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069160/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory/

Stalker 2 - NF FPS, meh https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643320/STALKER_2_Heart_of_Chornobyl/

Balatro - Indy rogue-lite poker. Surpisingly good. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - NF good, but drags on a bit https://store.steampowered.com/app/2677660/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Great_Circle/

Nine Souls - NP Side scroller https://store.steampowered.com/app/1809540/Nine_Sols/

Dungeons of Blood and Dream - NP indy 'painful' spellcasting https://store.steampowered.com/app/2488590/Dungeons_of_Blood_and_Dream/

AI Limit - NP Indy soulslike https://store.steampowered.com/app/2407270/AI_LIMIT/

Stelar Blade - NP Space Anime Soulslike https://store.steampowered.com/app/3489700/Stellar_Blade/

MENTIONS:

TECHNICALLY RELEASED IN 2024:
Satisfactory - NP Finally left 'Early Access'
Factorio - NP Finally left 'Early Access'
Caves of Qud - NP Roguelike finally hit 1.0

CONSOLE EXCLUSIVE
Astro Bot - well I played the free 'playroom' it was o.k. not for me though.

*****

GAME OF THE YEAR RELEASED IN 2024:
Balatro

Wins as between it and Indiana Jones, which are the only ones released
in 2024 I've played It sweeps all the categories except "AAA game of the year," "Action/Adventure Game of the year" and "Recreated an old geezer
from the movies in a game game of the year."

*****

NEW TO ME GAME OF THE YEAR 2024:
(Apparently I didn't play much in 2024, there's even some months I
didn't post anything to the the What Have You Been Playing threads,
because I hadn't played anything.)

NOMINEES

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve (2023, free from prime on epic) - Telltale
like game with perhaps a bit more turn based combat. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060870/Invincible_Presents_Atom_Eve/

Earth Defense Force 6 (2022) - co-op shooter over the top https://store.steampowered.com/app/2291060/EARTH_DEFENSE_FORCE_6/

Lies of P (2023) - souslike with actual story https://store.steampowered.com/app/1627720/Lies_of_P/

Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) - space action shooter https://store.steampowered.com/app/1238000/Mass_Effect_Andromeda_Deluxe_Edition/

Wall World (2023) - innovative pixel roguelike https://store.steampowered.com/app/2187290/Wall_World/


WINNER - NEW TO ME GAME OF THE YEAR 2024:

Lies of P
%%%% (fanfare) %%%%
Not at all the kiddie soulslike I thought it was going to be from
watching bits of it, very dark. The clockworks are terrifying. First
soulslike I've played with a real and good story. Fun and interesting
weapons. Better than real souls games except DS3. As a soulslike it's missing magic, which I'm always disappointed by, and you can pretty much
try all the weapons except boss ones no matter your build which makes replayability almost nil to me.


MOST UNDERRATED - NEW TO ME GAME OF THE YEAR 2024:

Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) - space action shooter
%%%% (fanfare) %%%%
I don't get why this has such bad ratings, I liked it better than all
but the first, but that feels like an entirely different kind of game.
The exploration of planets was great, the NPC party members were good
(not obsidian/larian good, but still good) and the combat was fine.


INDY - NEW TO ME GAME OF THE YEAR 2024:

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve
%%%% (fanfare) %%%%
For a game I've tried several in the same genre that I've quit rather
quickly to hook me until the end is unprecedented. It's one I will
definitely replay, but it hasn't been long enough.

DLC - NEW TO ME GAME OF THE YEAR 2024:
Fallout Nevada: The Pitt - darker fallout, best of those I played
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - meh. technically wins new in 2024.


-PS Today's dollar is worth $23.65 vs. 1935 which is around when the
saying "A day late and a dollar short" originated. Since it's 340 days
since the end of 2024, that's $8041, I rounded to $8k.
--
-Justisaur

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Sat, 6 Dec 2025 10:18:25 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I suspect we didn't get this one because Spalls already posted the
subject, but he put the wrong date, as it was for 2023 not 2024.

A blatant typo in the subject line? Now, does that _really_ sound like something I would do? ;-)

(Honestly, I don't remember posting a game-of-the-year thread back in
2024, but if I did, that's exactly the sort of fuck-up I'd make ;-)

What did you play that was released in 2024 and/or was new to your that
year that was the best.

Not surprisingly, I didn't buy a lot of _new_ games in 2024 (I did get
a lot of older ones), but I did grab a few released in that same year.


These included:
"MechWarrior 5: Clans", "Star Wars: Outlaws",
"Return to Moria", "Still Wakes the Deep", and
"Pacific Drive".

(Since then I've acquired a number of other 2024 games, but they
weren't in my library during that calendar year. There may have been
other, smaller games too... but I mention the five above specifically
because I've also actually /played/ those games).


* * * *


Of those, "Star Wars: Outlaws" was probably the one I enjoyed most,
although that was mostly because of the license. I'm a sucker for the
Star Wars franchise and it clouds my mind when it comes to judging the
games fairly. In truth, it is a deeply flawed, derivative game that's
pure Ubisoft in design. But when the lasers start pew-pewing and the
spaceships roar vroom overhead, its hard not to feel some joy at the
experience (the $300+ million poured into the development helped a lot
too, I'm sure. A lot more games would fare a lot better if they had
those sort of resources available for their development). Despite
this, it's not really a game I could recommend to others.



"Return to Moria" was a licensed title too, but with a much smaller
budget. It's also the 2024 game I probably spent the most time on, but
that's mostly because it's an exceptionally grindy game. I'm not a fan
of survival/crafting games, but I think "Moria" would probably be
considered a good example of the genre. Not the greatest... but good.
I think it matched its developers vision for the game pretty well.



A lot of people enjoyed "Still Wakes the Deep"... but I wasn't one of
them. I liked the game's visuals --the oil rig felt quite real-- but
the overall gameplay was dull and the story just wasn't very
interesting.



"Mechwarrior 5: The Clans" was a tremendous disappointment. It took
all the problems of "Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries" and added a slew of
new issues to them. Its level design and mission structure were
terrible, and its AI is incredibly bad. There were some improvements
--the visuals were slightly better, and the game did (sometimes) make
you feel like you were actually in a war rather than single-handedly
fighting off an entire army-- but on the whole the campaign was
subpar. I expected so much more from this game, and was disappointed
in almost every way.



Of all the games, "Pacific Drive" would probably be the 'best game' of
those I played in 2024... even though it was, again, not a particular
favorite of mine. It's yet another in a long run of survival/crafting
games that --for some reason-- I keep buying and playing. But it had
good atmosphere, and the mechanics were solid (even if I just can't
get excited about them). Of all the games in the list, this is really
the only one I'd recommend to people (albeit with caveats regarding
its genre). It's not necessarily a "you will love it!!1!" game, but a
definite, "Give it a look, its got some nice ideas and maybe you'll
like it" vibe.

Which is, sadly, more than I'd really say for any of the other games
in the list.


* * * *


Also, a belated nod to "Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster". The game
itself is fine, but it doesn't really deserve more than a brief acknowledgement. Partly because it is a remaster (and as such, not
really a 'new' game), but mostly because it doesn't really add very
much to the original that is (still!) available for 1/4 the price of
the remaster. If money is no concern, then sure, the remaster is
probably the best way to experience this game. But, really, you won't
have much worse a time playing the DOSBox-version, so why not just
save a few bucks?


* * * *


But of the fifty or so games I 'officially' played in 2024, the one I
probably enjoyed the most --regardless of when it actually came out--
was also probably the shortest: "Exit 8" (release date: 2023). It's a
game you can finish in <10 minutes (if you're really grinding it and
trying to see everything the game has to offer, its maybe 30 minutes
long) ... but it has a very clever hook and is a great experience. Its
brevity is actually to its advantage since there isn't that much to
the game, but at least it doesn't try to pad things out unnecessarily.
Its biggest sin is that it isn't worth the price; it's more of a demo
of an idea than a real game. But it's a /really/ neat idea.


* * * *


I'll happily share my thoughts on the 2025 games in 12 months.
Justisaur, make a note in your calendar to start the thread anew. I'd
do it but, well... you all know what'll probably happen if I try. ;-)



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On 12/6/2025 11:30 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sat, 6 Dec 2025 10:18:25 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I suspect we didn't get this one because Spalls already posted the
subject, but he put the wrong date, as it was for 2023 not 2024.

Of those, "Star Wars: Outlaws" was probably the one I enjoyed most,
although that was mostly because of the license. I'm a sucker for the
Star Wars franchise and it clouds my mind when it comes to judging the
games fairly. In truth, it is a deeply flawed, derivative game that's
pure Ubisoft in design. But when the lasers start pew-pewing and the spaceships roar vroom overhead, its hard not to feel some joy at the experience (the $300+ million poured into the development helped a lot
too, I'm sure. A lot more games would fare a lot better if they had
those sort of resources available for their development). Despite
this, it's not really a game I could recommend to others.

Well, it's on sale for 70% off it's $70 price tag at $20 on Steam.
Tempting. The ratings aren't that horrible, what I'm seeing is there
was a patch released 12/1/25 (yes that's 6 days ago) that people are
saying fixed most of the bugs, which is what most of the complaints are
about. I'm a sucker for SW, though I generally find most of the SW
games aren't terribly good. They're passable SW takes on other games.
There's some gems of course. For some reason I thought this was an
online multiplayer game, but looks not to be. Now I'll have to check if
it's on PS+ to give it a try.

Of all the games, "Pacific Drive" would probably be the 'best game' of
those I played in 2024... even though it was, again, not a particular favorite of mine. It's yet another in a long run of survival/crafting
games that --for some reason-- I keep buying and playing. But it had
good atmosphere, and the mechanics were solid (even if I just can't
get excited about them). Of all the games in the list, this is really
the only one I'd recommend to people (albeit with caveats regarding
its genre). It's not necessarily a "you will love it!!1!" game, but a definite, "Give it a look, its got some nice ideas and maybe you'll
like it" vibe.

Which is, sadly, more than I'd really say for any of the other games
in the list.

I just tried this an hour ago on PS+. I'm assuming it's a bug, but I
wasn't able to get out of the beginning/tutorial because it wanted me to (full) repair a specific tire with the mechanic tools, only the mechanic
tools broke before it was repaired and wouldn't let me go on from there.
I wasn't actually enjoying it either. The driving was very clunky
reminding me of very old driving games on the PC where you were either
turning fully a direction or going straight, it wasn't quite that bad,
but it was jerky. Also the whole survival crafting thing *ugh*. The
music was interesting.

But of the fifty or so games I 'officially' played in 2024, the one I probably enjoyed the most --regardless of when it actually came out--
was also probably the shortest: "Exit 8" (release date: 2023). It's a
game you can finish in <10 minutes (if you're really grinding it and
trying to see everything the game has to offer, its maybe 30 minutes
long) ... but it has a very clever hook and is a great experience. Its brevity is actually to its advantage since there isn't that much to
the game, but at least it doesn't try to pad things out unnecessarily.
Its biggest sin is that it isn't worth the price; it's more of a demo
of an idea than a real game. But it's a /really/ neat idea.

It's on sale for $2.79. It doesn't sound that interesting to me though.

* * * *

I'll happily share my thoughts on the 2025 games in 12 months.
Justisaur, make a note in your calendar to start the thread anew. I'd
do it but, well... you all know what'll probably happen if I try. ;-)

I'll try to remember. Overall I think this year's been better, I
already have several games from this year that I'd put up for game the
year that I've played. I'll try to remember sometime next month for
2025 so people can post the GotY that they played regardless of year it
was made.
--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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