Looking over my list of games… almost none of them are from 2024. So that’s a warning for you!

“Epics” have been taking all of my game-playing time this year. From Dragon Age: Inquisition (ahead of this years Dragon Age: Veilguard) and Larian Studio’s Divinity and Baldur’s Gate 3. I definitely feel a bit wiped.

But at the same time, two mobile games have surfaced. I never play mobile games!

So this is just a merry collection of random mini-reviews.

Tetris Effect (Playstation 4) – “Completed”

In the year 2024, we still find ourselves playing Tetris.

The 1985 Russian puzzler has had a significant blow-up in recent years, and Tetris Effect: Connected is no exception. The core of the game is the same, but the audio and visuals are 50/50 chill-out bliss and hair-raising anxiety. There is something meditative about many of the levels, especially on Easy or Normal difficulty, and there are a host of bonus modes to play (a favourite being one were long pieces appear at random, meaning you have to pre-empt them!)
Who knew that after all these years, the Tetris brain muscles will still be worked out.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (Playstation 4) – Completed

Admittedly, I owned the third Dragon Age game on the Xbox 360, but the console was not fit for the task and I stopped. A rarity: returning to an unfinished game and finishing it.

There’s a hole in the sky, and daemons are pouring into the material world from the Fade. It is up to the newly anointed Inquisitor to save the world from utter oblivion, despite the lack of faith from the different lands and potential allies. You need to travel far and wide, learning about your companions, and making a force strong enough to turn the tide.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a Dragon Age game from Bioware before Bioware fell apart. It has a lot of great qualities, namely in its characters and the storylines about those characters. But it is also an artificially bolstered game: an early “open world” game, full of busy work and empty map instances. It isn’t a bad game, you can certainly get a lot of enjoyment by following the character stories and world-building. But you certainly don’t need to do everything.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Steam)

Before they made Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios was famous for their original stories across Divinity 1 and 2. When played before playing BG3, the parallels are extremely evident. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is, in essence, a Dungeons & Dragons-style high fantasy game.
Supplying either a solo experience or a multi-player one, DOS2 follows a group of slaves who exhibit magical powers, known as Sourcerers. When their slave boat crashes, they go on an adventure of trials and revelations, gods and destiny. With not every destiny aligning with each other…

The game’s design is vast, again, BG3 taking wholesale from it. With multiple races to choose from, truckloads of skills, attributes, and traits to adjust, players are spoilt for choice. Build-craft is vital here.

But Divinity: Original Sin 2 is no slouch. This game will destroy you, regularly. It is extremely demanding of your attention and knowledge of its systems. Your party needs to be constructed effectively, and each member needs to build their character well. Fail at any of these, and you will be wiped out. It is an unforgiving game, even for players who play games regularly. It is so vital, there being no build-crafting mode, a mode to test character builds ahead of time, is a real shame.

But if you are prepared for a vast fantasy game with in-depth gameplay mechanics and systems… You won’t go far wrong here.

Professor Layton: The Spectre’s Call (DS)

I am very sorry to say I’ve not finished Professor Layton: The Spectre’s Call (and The Last Specter, in other regions) despite starting it in… February?
The first puzzle game starring Layton (Professor Layton and the Curious Village) was excellent, as it not only worked my brain furiously but its story was tied to its puzzles. Spectre’s Call is a prequel, and shows how the professor met his assistant Luke. It also introduces Emma, who proves to be a great character too.

The puzzles are still fiendish and/or rewarding. Depends on your ability! The game’s animation and style are still beautifully created from 2D sprites. But… I just kept forgetting about it. The story should tide you along, but its mystery didn’t feel very interesting. Although I’ve not finished it yet, initial revelations were painfully obvious from the start.

It isn’t you, Professor. I really should focus and finish the game!

Two Point Campus (Steam)

During the Covid-19 lockdown, I played an obscene amount of Two Point Hospital. Perhaps I should have been stopped.
Two Point Campus is more of the same, only this time you are running a university. You’ll be running dorms, lecture halls, student unions, and a host of weird classes that the students must get good grades in order for you to earn money to keep the place running.
The premise isn’t quite as strong as it was in Two Point Hospital, it feels even more ridiculous and a little more… nebulous. There are several factors that contribute to a student’s grade, but a big one is happiness (take note, schools, and… literally anywhere people work). The game puts a lot of emphasis on “kudosh”, a currency barely used in Hospital and… honestly, a little too much emphasis.

If you are a junky for more Two Point, you’ll find something here. Plus there’s a ton of additional DLCs. But if you are starting out, start with Two Point Hospital.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies (Steam) – Completed

I have become a big fan of the Phoenix Wright franchise over the years. But Dual Destinies (and sequel Spirit of Justice) passed me by as they were on the Nintendo 3DS. But publisher Capcom rereleased them as part of the Apollo Justice trilogy. So now fans like me can enjoy more court-based drama and high-jinx.

Dual Destinies marks the end of the franchise’s use of sprite art and animation. Which is a great shame. The previous game Apollo Justice, had some of the best sprite work I’ve seen. The 3D models are not as good. But that isn’t to say I didn’t warm to them as I played!
Following Apollo Justice, Phoenix Wright, Athena Cykes, and others, this game is packed with intrigue both fascinating and infuriating. Like any good entry in the series. There’s always that one case that is impossible to deduce. But there’s also that final sequence that plays out so beautifully.

It is a fun, absurd and endearing experience. As a fan I was very happy at the chance to play it. The first game and the third game (Trials and Tribulations) are still my favourites, but I will still play future games.

Cats Organized Neatly (Steam)

A simple little puzzle game where you organize kitties on a grid. Each cat has a different poise, making them harder to fit in a grid with the others!

Pretty straight forward. It is a short game, but it is a pleasant experience. Very quiet, with gentle meows and purrs whenever a cat is placed on the grid. The art is charming. I’ve not got stuck on a level yet for longer than five or ten minutes.

It is quite cheap. If you want a little distraction for shorter periods of time, have a look at it.

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Steam) – Completed

What a journey I went on with Baldur’s Gate 3…

A critical darling of 2023, Larian Studio’s game swept up all the awards in its path. It sated the starved appetites of millions of roleplaying game fans. Finally, a western RPG that had deep role-playing mechanics, story branches, abilities, and of course… romance options.

But even with all the accolades, it took twenty hours before I properly enjoyed it. The studio is known for making hard games, and while BG3 is easier than those, it is still uncompromising. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not bad at games, and it isn’t difficulty alone; it is also glitches, design choices, and a lack of tutorialisation.
Did you know sometimes enemies can shoot through doorways but you cannot? Did you know a “burning” torch stowed in your backpack (not equipped) will still detonate oil barrels? The gimmick of having “dice roll” chance to succeed or fail at anything (evoking the Dungeons & Dragons game) can be immensely frustrating and encourages reloading and save-scumming. Plus, in terms of “romance”, the game means: “everyone wants to have sex with you immediately”. I don’t know, given the circumstances, that feels very contrived. And how many times can an enemy cast Darkness per day anyway? Infinite?

But… the characters are wonderfully voice-acted and they are animated extremely well. The combat is involving and frequent, and also just difficult enough that the player needs to master all the tools available. Often just scraping by at their wits’ ends. When it all works, it really works.

There are very real issues with it, that media influencers and fans are happy to not talk about. But as a game it is extremely addicting if the time is put in to understand it. The barrier for entry is tough, but the rewards are high.

Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Steam) – Completed

Having played Baldur’s Gate 3 and having a tortured time… Thank Goodness You’re Here! was exactly the remedy I needed. What a strange, silly, short game this was.

A surrealist adventure in the fictional Northern English town of Barnsworth in the 1980s/1990s. You play a very small man in a town whose inhabitants request aid of you at any given time. These silly, batty characters are comedic gold. Incapsulating absurdist British humour to a tee.

You know it is good when there is a “dialect” option in the menu! Indeed, the language is so on point that a lot of people won’t understand it. It is a short game, and you really just walk around slapping everything. Couldn’t be simpler!

And it only costs 10 bob.

Aero GPX (Steam) (Early Access)

Some years ago, inspired by a Youtuber’s search for the next F-Zero game, I played a lot of anti-gravity racers. AeroGPX could be the real answer to Nintendo’s shamefully floundering F-Zero franchise. Fans rejoice!

The game is in Early Access, meaning it is stable but is still in development. Developed by a very small team, AeroGPX has all the hallmarks of F-Zero X from the 1990s. It has you going at rip-roaring speeds. It has a high energy soundtrack and clean graphics. The game even has fun characters and unique vehicles. It is F-Zero X in all but name.
It does have some new tricks, though. You can drill-dash in mid-air, which increases your speed. There are more than simple races; you have elimination and time trial challenges mixed in.

Really looking forward to more developments and improvements here!

Phantom Spark (Steam) – Completed – All achievements

Another anti-gravity racer. Phantom Spark is created by team Ghosts (not to be confused by the EA owned Ghosts, responsible for some Need for Speed titles) and a “precision time trial racer”.

On the surface, the game is entirely about time trial racing. There are thirty tracks and some “trial” tracks which mostly explain how to control your craft. Races have no laps; the tracks are designed for you to reach the end. There are no weapons, nor physical opponents. You endeavour to improve your time against ghosts, which are either developer times or online players.
Beneath the surface… Well, it is the same. There’s nothing deeper.

If this sounds familiar, it is because every racing game that exists has a time trial mode. While Phantom Spark is extremely well machined and put-together, with a pleasant soundtrack and colour usage… it is quite empty. Once you thrash the times, there’s nothing else. No user-generated tracks. No mirror-mode or hard mode.

Phantom Spark does one thing: it is a vibe and a meditative racer. But it does nothing beyond that.

Deathloop (PlayStation 5)

Developed by the now closed Arkane Studios, Deathloop would be one of the last games released by the critically acclaimed studio. It is bittersweet to play their games now, as unfairly as they were shut down.

Deathloop enters into the roguelike sub genre of video game. The player controls Colt, a man who wakes up on an island with no memory of how he got there. But he does possess skills and knowledge to survive, and realizes the entire island is affected by a time loop. After a day passes, everything resets. Oh, and everyone wants to kill him as he tries to escape the loop.

It is a very flashy, stylistic first person shooter. Styled with a 1960s retro-futuristic aesthetic, with great characters and witty writing. There are lots of unique weapons and special powers, which escalate and improve in the way roguelikes do. It is a fun game, that allows you to personally improve and become more efficient as you play.

The worst thing about the game is the enemy AI. Genuinely, you can clear a large building of enemy by shooting someone from a hidden location and shooting everyone else as they file in, one at a time. Or a boss would get stuck under some stairs. Kinda ruins the stealth / varied gameplay structure when you can reliably do this every loop.

Sable (Steam)

Sable is an indie game created by just two developers. Classically starting out in the parents’ shed. But when you put this alongside it being heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it is quite a feat.
Playing as Sable, the player is released into an open world environment with little more than a rickety hover bike for company. Quite literally the quest is to discover yourself. Out in this alien/future desert, huge wrecks of spacecraft lie waiting to be explored. Or cave systems, mysterious temples or abstract structures with secrets inside.

It is a vibe. The music is mellow and chill, the visuals are desaturated and easy on the eyes. The gameplay is quiet as you traverse rolling landscapes or climb over obstacles. If you miss Breath of the Wild’s vibe, try it out. There isn’t combat (to my knowledge) to worry about, either.

Maybe not for everyone. Some might see it as quite empty. But the various quests you find have some goofy, surreal moments that elevate it from being just a walking sim. I’ll be coming back to this one often.

Pikmin Bloom (Android)

It isn’t often I have mobile games on this list. In fact… it never happens. But I do love Pikmin!

Crated by Niantic, the same company that makes the ludicrously successful Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom is another Nintendo property. Like Go, the game wants to get you walking around outside. The premise being: go walking, and grow your Pikmin squad while planting flowers and collecting seeds.

It has been a dedicated companion of mine for a few months now. As someone who works from home currently, I don’t get any exercise. Pikmin Bloom tracks your steps (not sure how accurately, but accurately enough) while also giving you goals to achieve. These can be: walk 10,000 steps; plant so many flowers; grow Pikmin. Before long, you’ll have a little squad of colourful plant creatures following you.

As a Pikmin fan, this will always be endearing to me.

Like Pokemon Go, there are social links. There are mushrooms that your Pikmin can destroy with aid of other players. But unlike Go, this game is very hands-off. You can have 90% of its gameplay happening without your input. Which suits me just fine.

Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (Android)

Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (or a shorter name variant) is a very odd experience for me: I don’t play card games; I don’t play Pokemon; and I don’t play mobile games. But what drew me to it (besides my partner wanting me to so she could trade with someone) was the art.
This card battle/trading game has very cute and beautiful art for each of the cards. More than that, the game is free.

Sure, you can pay money for a subscription. But if you just want to open card packs and make a nice collection, the game gives that to you for free. Every day you can open two booster packs containing several random cards. You can look at them closely, put them in binders, add effects to them. There are even rare “immersive” cards that animate.
Again, you can buy cards. But you can just as easily play without spending anything. I have no intention of spending money, and I have hundreds of cards now. The game regularly gives you in-game currencies for free which enable you to get more cards.

The battle system is… fine, but often entirely luck-based. You can build your own deck or use rentals. You can even “auto-battle”, and the game plays itself with your deck. But online players often play the same decks over and over. Players concede matches at the slightest sign of losing. It makes for a fairly unrewarding experience. Of 45 games won, half of those are the opponent conceding. Somewhere between five and ten of those could be considered “good” games.

But still. It is free, and you collect very pretty art.