Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Holy crap, they did it. They made me feel like Indiana Jones in a video game. 

I've played just about every Indiana Jones game out there. All of them were either too action oriented (Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine) or too slow paced (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis). But you can tell that the people making this game are fans of the films. 

The films always start with a really cool action sequence, taking a play out of the James Bond universe. Then there's a sort of setup scene where you see Indy interacting with some of the side characters for the story. Then a McGuffin. Then Indy has some quiet reflection on his massive encyclopedia of a brain. Then an action sequence as he has to read something in some tomb. Reflection. Action. Reflection. Action. Explosion. Dead Nazis. 

Deathloop

 

I couldn’t get a hold of a PS5 for a while when it was released, so I casually followed game news, hoping one day to get a hold of one. Deathloop was one I had my ears out for. Bethesda published (whatever that means nowadays in the Microsoft organization) by the people that brought us Dishonored. Dishonored is one of those games that should grab my attention and hold it, but I’ve always bounced off. But I’ve always really liked the engine. So out of the PS5 games, this one stuck out. 

Oblivion Remastered

Platform: Steamdeck

Release Year: 2025

Note: There will be many Oblivion spoilers below. 

Oblivion was THE launch window game for the Xbox 360. Maybe the commercials for Halo 3, Dead Rising, or Gears of War got you intrigued, but if you got that original 20 GB Xbox 360, this was the game to show off the "next gen." I remember a roommate of mine telling me I was wasting time playing the game and I looked them in the eye and said, "Why would I go outside, when this world looks and feels better than the real world?"

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I'm starting to see the cracks of not having central games oriented sites as prevalent. I'm off Reddit. I'm off X. I till occasionally go to IGN and GiantBomb (Viva la independence!). I knew almost nothing about the new Dragon Age coming out. I barely knew it was coming. And this is coming from someone that loved the majority of past Dragon Age games. 

I started seeing complaints about the art direction first. I take gamer forums, especially regarding previews, with a huge grain of salt since the "Cellda" days killed any chance of us getting another Wind Waker style game in a long time. I looked at some screenshots, maybe not my favorite art direction, but I certainly didn't think it looked "child like" or whatever the complaints were. In action, it looks fine. 

Last of Us 2 is a Bread Sandwich

Warning: There will be some spoilers below

The Last of Us is one of my favorite games of all time. So when Last of Us 2 was coming, I was excited. 

Unfortunately for it (and me) and landed just 2 months into complete lockdown for the Covid 19 pandemic. 

So I'm depressed, because the global pandemic has me locked in my house like everyone else. And this game about a global pandemic that is also incredibly depressing arrives in the mail... and I don't know if I've ever hit a level of despair holding a PlayStation controller as I did playing through LOU2.

Game of the Year 2024 Top 5

2024 turned out to be a hell of a year for my personal gaming in general. Yes, there were some old safe classics I played and they made the list, but the new games were bangers as you'll see in the top 5 here. 

Game of the Year 2024 Numbers 16-6

Another year, another batch of games I've played. Since I'm not a huge IGN sized blog, I generally only have about 20 games I've played for the year. So I try to give each game at least a sentence. 

This was an interesting year. I found myself reaching for the Switch less and less as the year went on. The PlayStation 5 went through spurts of abandonment. The Series S got relegated to the basement room. It was the year of the Steam Deck. 

So here we are, games 16-6 of 2024.