Excellent advice, although I did a Hades 2 run instead.

I have four hours left in this flight. Should I start Plurbius or Metroid Prime 4?

Finished it yesterday. 100% agree. Happy Thanksgiving you champion.

6 seems right. I enjoyed it enough to finish it and I’m always happy to support Australian causes.

Will give it a listen - thanks! Yeah, had a feeling when the DS2 discourse just… stopped… after about a week. I got to it late and I feel like I was the last person still playing it.

Beautiful and accurate.

Thank you for reading this timely recap of the year that was. Oh, one plug for a non-2024 game I played in 2024... Robocop Rogue City! Should have been a disaster, could have been a disaster... instead a truly lovely homage to the original films. The Cobra Kai of Robocop, if you will.

1) Balatro: Poker, card collecting, math -- literally my three favorite pastimes. This is an all-timer; my favorite game since Hades, and whomever decided to release a phone version should be imprisoned.

2) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dropped the ball on *the moment* but otherwise I was enthralled by all of it. My son played this simultaneously and I cherished sharing the experience. Re-Three can't come soon enough.

3) Astro Bot: Should it have been in VR? Of course. But VR is dunzo, and we have to accept that. This was pure joy, and the only video game in recent memory that I didn't want to end -- I'm ready for more levels any time.

4) Star Wars Outlaws: Secretly one of the best ever Star Wars games and it's so frustrating it didn't connect with the audience. (And I loved it before the patches.) I can do a better Lando Calrissian impression though; why not stop by the house and I'll perform it for you?

5) Tetris Forever: Such a fan Digital Eclipse and the Gold Master Series. My wife got hooked on the documentary segments and I grew deeply jealous as she gradually feel in love with Henk Rogers. (To be fair, I bet Henk Rogers smells extraordinary.)

6) Alan Wake II: Night Springs/The Lake House. Finally, Remedy nails DLC. I played AW2 for the first time last year (adored it) and the DLC is fully integrated into the campaign. Scary, funny, weird -- pure Remedy. I appreciate their insistence on keeping Quantum Break in the canon.

7) Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I've got one Metroidvania in me every five years or so. The last was Metroid Dread, which was my GOTY in 2021. PoP is even better, as long as you skip the cutscenes....

8) Destiny 2: The Final Shape. Not sure why I came back (stopped playing D2 after Witch Queen) but I'm glad I did. A surprisingly well-crafted and nostalgic tribute to a once beloved series that I will never play again.

9) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Also bailed on this one, but intending to try again on Switch 2 after recently finishing the Link's Awakening remake. Zelda Scribblenauts is a cool idea worth exploring. (Link's Awakening is a banger, by the way, and runs SO much better on S2.)

10) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Despite astounding production values (motion capture, tone, setting, dialog, and obviously the voice work) I bailed after the Vatican. I don't like exploring cities anymore and the constant map checking grew too irritating. I just wanted this to be Uncharted.