Welcome back, gaming fans! 2024 is another packed year with new games. It also seems like this year will be quite controversial for the video game industry, but we’ll find out more details within the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’m starting to get through the first games of the year. Did 2024 have a decent opening season or did publishers release a bunch of filler content? Check out my thoughts below. I was disappointed with last year’s brawler games, but 2024 seems to be heading in the right direction. Mayhem Brawler is a 2D side scrolling brawler with a few modern elements, such as branching storylines and different enemy or boss encounters that reflect your choices. That means the game has multiple endings as well. The controls are fluid, the animation takes influences from comic book illustrations, and the basic mechanics are easy to learn yet challenging to master. For example, you can dash toward enemies with the press of a single button instead of double tapping the joystick. Each playable character is a different archetype with their own unique abilities, including a wolf-man, a shark-man, and a superhero in the vein of Captain Marvel. Mayhem Brawler has seven chapters, which feels like the right length. The game also has plenty of replay value because each experience will be somewhat different. Mayhem Brawler might be one of the most commercial brawlers and yes, that’s a good thing. It introduces players to the genre and helps them build skills with their own gameplay style. I wholeheartedly recommend this game and it’s hard to beat the price at $20 digitally. The gaming community waited many years for a new entry in the Prince of Persia series. It’s a side scrolling metroidvania that brings the franchise back to form while adding several modern elements. On the plus side, The Lost Crown has excellent animation, entertaining combat, numerous ways to traverse the environment, and accessibility features to make the game more enjoyable for casual players. You can also take pictures to help you remember locations that require unlocking. However, the inventory and upgrade system feels convoluted. You’ll spend a long time unlocking new abilities and it’s hard to tell what items make the best upgrades. I accumulated large quantities of material, but it just seemed like a collection of stuff. What do all these totems, gems, and sigils mean? Your guess is as good as mine. The map is pretty good, although it needs way more fast travel options for a game of this size. The Lost Crown requires massive amounts of backtracking and it pads on a lot of extra time for no particular reason. After a while, the gameplay and platforming feels highly repetitive with excessive grinding. It just feels like a chore past a certain point. I also experienced a lot of motion sickness. If you’re curious about the new Prince of Persia game, check it out on Ubisoft+ for PC or Xbox. That way, you can try the game without paying full price. People who love metroidvanias will enjoy this game, but it’s not going to be a great experience for newcomers or players who struggle with the genre, despite a multitude of accessibility features. Another Code: Recollection includes two point and click mystery games. The graphics have an anime style and it’s easy to maneuver through the environment. Puzzles are fun with a decent amount of variety. Most of the puzzles are pretty simple, but others are more challenging. The story is quite interesting with influences from various cozy mysteries and light sci-fi excursions. Another Code has solid voice acting and plenty of opportunities to learn more about the characters through dialogue options and letters strewn around the environment. You probably won’t get lost because the game has a map and the puzzles have a hint system. Both games combined have a very meaty runtime at easily twenty hours. This remake collection has a few issues worth mentioning. Some of the mini games require the Switch’s motion controls, which is a pain in the butt. The story drags periodically and the plot can be a bit confusing in the later chapters. It’s not a hard collection, so certain gamers will find the experience dull. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this duo of titles. Another Code: Recollection might not be the best choice for people who are searching for an ultra difficult experience, but it’s good for people who appreciate narrative adventures and mysteries. It even has a fun little sci-fi spin. I will say the price is off putting at $60. You definitely have the option of waiting for a sale. If you’re a fan of courthouse dramas, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy be a good choice. Granted, I was less thrilled with this trilogy compared to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. The Apollo Justice games have similar elements, such as investigations, crime scenes, interrogations, deductions, and other elements that you’ll see in Law & Order. It seems like 2024 has a lot of anime remakes, including this trilogy. Chronicles had interesting mysteries, well developed characters, clever deduction systems, and plenty of humor. However, the Apollo Justice Trilogy is slow, repetitive, boring, and goofy without being witty. Some people are really huge fans of the Ace Attorney franchise and I’ll bet a few of the stories in this trilogy rank lower on the list. The runtime is unrealistically long at ninety hours. If you play through all of the main stories, you’re looking at days or weeks of gameplay. That’s simply too long for students and adults with busy schedules. I’m only recommending this trilogy for hardcore Ace Attorney fans. The franchise has better entries and I found unrelated games more satisfying, such as Another Code: Recollection and last year’s Murder On the Orient Express. The fighting genre’s renaissance continues with Tekken 8. I was afraid this game would fail to impress me after playing Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1. Good thing I was wrong! Tekken 8 has great controls and countless combinations that can drain your opponent’s health. The new heat system can regenerate your health and temporarily unlock new combos. When your health is low, the game gives you the chance to use a super move that will cripple your opponent. The story mode is surprisingly good and you have other gameplay options, such as the short character stories, multiplayer, and a unique arcade tour. Tekken remains the most challenging and unforgiving of the major fighting IPs, but it has some new elements that can help newcomers. For example, you can turn on the new control scheme that will allow you to perform lengthy combos by mashing a single button. The roster is very impressive with more than thirty characters, including original favorites and new characters to the series.
Ultimately, Tekken 8 is one of the best entries in the franchise and a great addition to the fighting genre. Despite a high level of difficulty, I find this game entirely accessible to casual gamers. I can understand if you want the price to drop below $70 after some time, but the game still has amazing value. That’s all for now! A couple of the games on this post weren’t my cup of tea, but it was actually a really good start for the year. Hopefully, it will be a strong indicator for the rest of 2024. I’m still working on a backlog of games for the next round of reviews. It’s hard to believe the beginning of the year was so packed. Early 2024 started with many layoffs in the gaming industry, rumors about the next Nintendo console, Best Buy eliminating physical movies from their inventory, and Xbox rethinking their business strategy for the future. We still have a long ways to go this year! On that note, have fun watching the Super Bowl, enjoy your Valentine’s Day, and I’ll see you again next week.
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Here we go! Let the console wars commence in 2024! I still say Nintendo is going to run away with it all, but we’re starting with Xbox and PlayStation. January had an Xbox Developer Direct and a PlayStation State of Play. What were the biggest announcements? Today, I’m listing the games that sparked my interest the most. Enjoy!
Xbox Developer Direct Avowed It’s worth mentioning, none of the games featured at the Xbox Developer Direct look remarkable, but most of them seem entertaining. Avowed is a blend of Medieval fantasy and the survival genre. This game includes a hefty RPG system and a large open world environment. However, it’s not going to evolve you into a superhero or overpowered beast. Instead, Avowed features harsh conditions and a lengthy fight for survival in many different ways, ranging from ravenous animals, hoards of mercenaries or bandits, and a plague. I still think it takes many influences from The Elder Scrolls, especially Skyrim, but it might have some unique elements that aren’t clear yet. The graphics and gameplay looked alarmingly rough, despite having a release window for Fall 2024. Regardless, Avowed is debuting day one on Xbox Game Pass, so I can’t complain too much. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II This long awaited sequel had the most impressive VFX at the Developer Direct. Hellblade II has a lengthy development history, although the runtime will be eight hours or less. Also, this game will be digital only. The abrupt shift to a permanent digital market is just depressing. I wasn’t a big fan of the first Hellblade game, but this one shows plenty of promise. Hopefully, the gameplay will be less clunky than the original title and the puzzles might cause less eye strain. I doubt Hellblade II will be one of my favorite games in 2024, but it’s coming to Game Pass on day one and the quality looks decent up to this point. You can play Senua’s Saga on May 21, 2024. Visions of Mana Here was a nice little surprise. Visions of Mana from Square Enix had an announcement. It’s a third person fantasy game with a sandbox style environment, four player co-op, and hack & slash combat. The Mana series is a spinoff of Final Fantasy and it features really cute anime characters. It reminds me of Kingdom Hearts in some ways, which is another property of Square Enix. I’m not sure if this game will be more popular among kids or adults, but it looks entirely accessible to both age groups. Visions of Mana is the only cross-platform game from the Developer Direct and it will have a physical release. The current release window is Summer of 2024. So far, it’s not dropping on Xbox Game Pass, although you never know. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle I’m sorry, but that’s an awful title. Please, don’t allow it to be a bad omen. The Developer Direct showcased the first gameplay footage of the upcoming Indiana Jones game. Surprisingly, it’s going be mostly in first person perspective. That seems like an odd choice, but the developer is MachineGames, who created the modern Wolfenstein series. It might be part of their comfort zone. At this point, Indiana Jones appears to be focusing on a story driven narrative, Indy’s signature whip, stealth tactics, and multiple ways to proceed through areas. Troy Baker is voicing the titular character, but the developer is using Harrison Ford’s facial likeness. Again, the gameplay and VFX don’t look impressive, although it definitely has appeal in other ways. I’m always willing to try something different. Plus, it’s another day one release on Game Pass. The release year is 2024 and let’s see if the date sticks. PlayStation State of Play Dragon’s Dogma II Look at that. Another Medieval fantasy with an open world environment. Dragon’s Dogma II looks similar to Avowed and it will be interesting to see which game is better. Like Avowed, Dragons Dogma II looks a bit rough around the edges with janky gameplay and dated graphics. However, this game still shows plenty of creativity and strong world building. The gameplay looks challenging and entertaining with a complex RPG system. Keep in mind, this game is cross-platform, even though it was part of the PlayStation State of Play. You can play Dragon’s Dogma II on March 22, 2024. Rise of the Ronin The 2024 release schedule doesn’t have a lot of polish. Rise of the Ronin takes place in 19th Century Japan, near the end of the Samurai era. It seems to be taking influences from Ghost of Tsushima and the Nioh series with an emphasis on tactics, defensive moves, and counters. However, the combat shows faster pacing in the vein of God of War. Like many titles on this post, the gameplay and graphics look unfinished. Despite that issue, the release date remains March 22, 2024. Maybe I’ll be surprised when the final product comes out. Judas The creators of BioShock have a new dystopian project. Judas is a sci-fi thriller that takes place on a giant space vessel. Basically, it’s like a reimagining of BioShock with a totalitarian regime who’s controlling the remaining humans and exploiting them for entertainment. Plot details are scarce, but it’s seems like The Purge, The Hunger Games, and Black Mirror in space. It just looks like more BioShock to me with an updated setting. However, I really enjoyed the BioShock series and this type of setting will probably appeal to modern audiences. I don’t know if Judas will be a PlayStation exclusive or cross-platform. It doesn’t have a release date, so development is probably pretty early. Silent Hill 2 Honestly, I never played the original Silent Hill games. I know Silent Hill 2 was very popular, which means a remake is probably the right way to go. The story is about a man named James Sunderland who’s searching for his wife. Allegedly, his wife is already dead, yet she contacted James and told him she’s in Silent Hill. It’s a grisly take on psychological horror with deformed monsters and a nightmare dimension that crosses into our reality. Everything about this game looks really weird, but it might be really scary as well. I’m not sure if Bloober Team was the right developer for such a regarded project. Granted, that’s the situation and we can’t change it. The new trailer didn’t give a release date, but I heard it’s coming later this year. We’ll see. Stellar Blade I feel torn about this post-apocalyptic game. Usually, I don’t like soulsborne games and Stellar Blade seems to be taking elements from the genre. However, it also looks very similar to hack and slash titles, such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. Stellar Blade has an upgrade system, a semi-open world environment, and a variety of missions. The combat looks challenging with past pacing. It’s a little hard to describe the setting. The story takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth in a distant future, long after cosmic monsters destroyed civilization. Now the remaining humans live on a giant space shuttle. I’ll keep an eye on this game because PlayStation still needs to provide more info. Stellar Blade is debuting on April 26, 2024. Until Dawn How many of you remember Until Dawn on the PlayStation 4? It was a popular horror game with a choose-your-own-adventure structure. In the near future, Until Dawn is getting an upgrade to the PS5 with improved graphics, controls, and extra scenes. It’s a solid creature feature in the snowy mountains where no one can save you. We don’t have a release date yet, but it’s coming out some time this year. If you like The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology series, this game will be up your alley. Be prepared for plenty of surprises, jump scares, and some laughs. That’s how the console market is starting 2024! Do you feel disappointed with these announcements? Are you looking forward to any of these games? How you do think the 2024 video game schedule will pan out? Leave a comment. It’s already February, but we don’t know very much about this year’s gaming slate yet. Time will tell. The weather is rainy and treacherous in my area, so be careful and bundle up. On that note, take care of each other, have fun, and I’ll see you next week. |
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May 2019
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