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. 

Top Games of 2020

2020 has been a hell of a year. You would think being locked in, unable to go to bars, hockey games,

and on trips, would give me infinite time to play video games, but ultimately apathy took hold. I played some long games, but not a lot of games. 

I tended to favor games with a lot of repetition this year. Instead of wanting snap judgements and strategy, I would  slide into a meditative trance, let the world fade into the background, while I grinded like it was 1998. 

As always, these aren't necessarily games that came out in 2020, but games I played in 2020. 

Ridge Racer Type 4

Like a lot of people, the original Ridge Racer was one of the first games I played on the PlayStation 1. It was accessible enough, showed off the fantastic CD player capabilities of the system, and looked fantastic compared to other early 3D games.

... buuuuuutttttt, that came with the caveat of there only being one track (two if you count the reverse track, three if you count the little bit extra track added in expert) so it didn't hold much interest once you got first place. It mostly because the centerpiece of showing off why your PlayStation was better than a Nintendo 64.

I moved onto Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, Cruis'n World, and Test Drive 5, (also known as 1996-1998 my racing formative years), and even had a short flirtation with NASCAR 98 and it's paintball mode.

But nothing gripped me the way that Ridge Racer Type 4 did in 1999. In fact, I'll be bold enough to say, Ridge Racer Type 4 is my favorite racing game of all time.

Scraping It All and Starting Over

There comes a time in many RPG's where you hit a wall. There's that one boss you can't beat. Epic 30 minute battles are fought with the boss, only to have your entire party destroyed in one powerful AOE attack.

You have to take stock of where you are in the game and figure out if you need to grind it out further or just scrap what you've done, start over, and follow a guide.

I'm at that point in two games.

I've discussed how Final Fantasy VII is a huge black mark on my gaming history. I'm currently on disk 3, right at the point of no return.

Before I ventured on, I decided to make sure I was properly equipped to handle the final fight.

I've read that Knights of the Round is almost necessary to defeat the final boss. But the requirements for Knights of the Round are pretty steep.

Even if you don't have Knights of the Round, Yuffie and Vincent are almost necessary, both of which I missed.

Since I hate wrangling Chocobo in the game, let alone some rare one, I'm considering starting over and specking my characters different ways and get the two characters I did not.

I could potentially spend another 10 hours grinding and leveling up to where it doesn't matter as much. I've had friends tell me they've beat the game around level 75-80. I'm currently sitting in the mid-50's.

Starting over means losing about 50 hours of game play. I fear if I start over, I'll never finish the game. I'll hit the wall I hit back in the late 90's and never progress.

The other game I'm currently stuck on is Vagrant Story. It's my all time favorite RPG. I've beaten it before, so I'm not agonizing over this decision as much. (Plus the game is only about 10-20 hours long) I'm stuck on a dragon and don't have any of the gear to make this a fair fight. He's killing me in two hits.

I know if I started Vagrant Story over, I would finish it. It's just a matter of how long will it take me. I'm about 3/4 of the way through the game and was really looking forward to finally taking on some of the New Game + dungeons.

I think I need to step away for a week or two, reassess, philosophize over our role in the universe, maybe get a life coach. Only then do I feel I can make this decision.

Editorial: Losing Steam with the JRPG

I've always had this internal battle raging. About twice a year I get this yearning to play a JRPG style game and about 1.9 times a year I get this yearning to not finish that game.

This all started with Final Fantasy VII in the summer of 1997. My cousin and I went to the local rental store, saw this cool cover with a guy and a huge sword, and took it home. No amount of pizza and Mountain Dew could dull the disappointment that we weren't actively running into large hordes of enemies and cutting them down with this man sized sword.

That night, thinking maybe we missed something, I popped the game in after my cousin went to bed. I tried to take the game in. The prerendered backgrounds were beautiful. The music, some of the best I'd heard. But still, I just didn't understand the battle engine. My 13 year old self couldn't understand why my characters were taking breaks between hits. I didn't feel their fate actually rested in my hands, but rather rested in the hands of Lady Luck.

I've revisted Final Fantasy VII on my PSP in 2009 and enjoyed it much more. In fact, I've made it to the end of disk two... and I've been stuck there for 2 years. This isn't because I've come against a tough boss, its because I read a spoiler that said, "Don't even bother fighting the last boss without Knights of the Round," which I did not get.

The only two JRPG style games that I've actually finished are Legend of Legaia (PS1) and Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360). Both gave me an intense feeling of accomplishment and I think that's the feeling I'm chasing when I boot up that JRPG every year.

And while I chase that, the list of JRPGs that sit unfinished on my Vita and PS3 memory cards grows and this is almost a memorial for them, because I just don't know if I will ever finish any of them. The world will remain in chaos and the hero will remain casually living life at the last save point.

• Final Fantasy IV - Corrupt save state has me stuck in a dungeon I immediately die in
• Final Fantasy V - 3 hours in and I lost steam
• Final Fantasy VII - Sitting at the end of disk two where I have to decide whether to grind my level up to 99 or try to go back and get Knights of the Round. 
• Final Fantasy VIII - There's really no good reason. I actually liked this one better than VII, bought a copy of it, but never played more than the demo. 
• Grandia - I just don't know where I'm supposed to go after the first town and am too lazy to look it up. 
• Chrono Cross - It just seems so daunting to play this. 
• Persona 4 Golden - Can't beat a boss about 6 hours in. 

Podcast and Update

So here's the first podcast. It came out better than expected. I had some problems when I streamed it for my own personal listening. A couple of times the sound went out, but we're working on that. You'll hear about 14,000 "umms" coming from me as I ponder my next genius thought. I had a blast recording it and I think Neil did too so there will be many more coming. The link is below

http://fellinlovewithtech.mypodcast.com/2008/09/Media_Whore_Sept_18-142916.html

The website is coming along. We've purchased a domain and Neil is currently putting that together.

Some point this weekend I will be putting up some reviews. I know Matt almost had one done. Neil got the new Iphone and he's working on the website so I don't know if we will see anything from him. Joe has been largely non-existent thus far. I'll see if I can squeeze something out of him.

Enjoy and tell us what you think.