By far my favorite game of the year was Blue Prince. I think Expedition 33 was amazing and did feel like a "revival" of the JRPG. Silksong was pretty great (not perfect!). I regret rushing through the last part of Red Dead Redemption 2 because I underestimated how great the story was going to hit.

Games that don’t end (ish):
Elden Ring Nightreign - 85
Monster Train 2 - 38
Ball x Pit - 16

Keep in mind I’m 100% XBOX still right now (so no Hades 2, Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy Rebirth)

Satisfactory - 172 (ongoing)
Blue Prince - 134
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 78
Silksong - 78
Death Stranding - 59 (replay)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - 57
FFT Ivalice Chronicles - 44
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - 37
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - 34
Final Fantasy V - 30
The Alters - 29

Looks like Xbox isn't doing a "wrapped" feature this year. So I am trying to get a 3rd party site to synchronize with my profile and make it for me :| I might have to just list things out by hand again. I try to keep track of what I play each year, what games I finished, and what I recommend.

I also finished Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles. I really enjoyed the original, and it was great to go through it again. The retranslation was great. The difficulty was uneven still, and it still has some systems that just seem useless. It is a classic not quite hidden gem type of game.

I finished two games last week. Red Dead Redemption 2 was absolutely amazing. I had avoided it because I thought you would just play a "bad guy" but I'm really glad I picked it up on sale. Amazing story and graphics and "vibe". I would just load it up when I wanted to slow down and be in its world.

Finished Silksong! My thumb is calloused now 🤣 It was great. I think there were too many “danger rooms” as opposed to bosses with great music and fun patterns, but those were there tor every so often! The difficulty was all over the place. I also wish there were more fun tools.

Haircut over the weekend. Back at work waiting for a meeting to start.

I retried Ori and the Will o Wisps and finished it. Great game. Much improved over the first one. I love the visuals and sense of movement. Once you get some of the upgrades the backtracking doesn’t feel like a slog. I still don’t like the “chase” sequences, but there wasn’t very many.

Lost interest in Cult of the Lamb. I thought the base building was pretty good and the combat was pretty good, and that got me through three of the bishops, and some of the “but wait there’s more going on here!” But I just wasn’t looking forward to doing more of the same at that point.

Finished a bunch of games without posting thoughts. Indiana Jones and the Great circle. I really liked the treasure hunting and cinematic parts. I recommended doing the main story and field works, collecting stuff as you come across them. The ending wasn’t satisfying but the journey was really fun.

Finished Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Really good. I liked the combat. Some of the abilities were really fun. Most of the platforming was fun. The boss fights were great, and you could overcome with practice and getting stronger. Great presentation overall!

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been nice. It’s definitely more low stakes and exploring an environment. I love the story parts and the treasure huntery things where you pull a level and some big mechanic thing rotates and lines up and you have to do like a big puzzle box.

Putting Dragon Age on hold. It is a good game I think. But it says I’ve been playing for 70 hours and I don’t even think I’m halfway through the story? Maybe it’s too many RPGs for me lately.

Finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I thought the main story got a little worse towards the end, but the characters are what made the game and those were great. Lots of great scenes and stuff. The difficulty felt more smooth, but that could be because I was into all the side content.

Waiting for manager to show up to zoom meeting. Wishing I had known he was going to be late so that I could have done the mustache wax thing.

I don’t have the best relationship with music. I WFH but prefer to watch gaming lets plays while working. When I do listen, it is ASOT radio and liked trance songs, 80s vibes, and video game soundtracks (how is Hollow Knight my 3rd most played?)

I exclusively played games on my Xbox Series X this year, so this is pretty accurate.

Top 10 of 2024 by hours played:
Elden Ring
Unicorn Overlord
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Octopath Traveler II
Baldur’s Gate 3
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Dead Cells
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
Coral Island
Slay the Spire

Started Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth yesterday. I am glad I finished the first one, the characters really stick with you. And this new one seems wonderful so far. I’m enjoying the graphic upgrades and small quality of life changes so far! And looking forward to the Hawaiian vibe.