You know those games we were talking about that could be the thing this year around the time Geoff Keighley was putting on his best physical smile and preparing to take to the stage at Prizes of the Games?
They can all go and do one.
Well, maybe more than that Balatrobecause everyone likes Balatro.
But I digress, I'm not here to write about Balatro, no matter how many extra minutes he gave us all. I'm here to write about my personal games of the year. There are three of them, because I'm an indecisive prick.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Fallout: London. Thank you very much You are here.
Three games that came to be in very different ways, and for different reasons.
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I'll start with Infinite Wealth, as did 2024. Falling in January (especially the best month because it's the one I was born in) Like A Dragon 8 faced a tough task. to surpass his distinguished predecessor, Yakuza: Like Dragonplus somehow bring a better ending to the iconic Kazuma Kiryu series than the one from As Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Destroyed His Name. You know, the ending that had all of us Yakuza-heads bawling like babies just a few months before.
In my appreciationhe did a better job of the two than he had any right to. It's really two games. It's one love letter that reveals just how far the long-lost, but deeply buried prize fighter has come before he goes out to achieve what he believes might be possible. to be his last fight – the one in which the longest time will inevitably destroy him. canvas through the gloves of his latest opponent. The other is the next chapter in the story of someone whose life is about approaching things in a way that Kiryu never had – relying on others to fight the fight. do for you
You can argue that RGG bringing Kiryu back for his third attempt at a retirement tour interferes with allowing the Ichiban Kasuga portion of the story (which is supposed to have established itself properly as the face of the franchise after his debut. ) did just that. To me, with Kiryu in there, you get a whole package that's much more balanced in the story he's trying to tell. It's 'Doing It Yourself' versus 'Doing It With Help', and (spoiler alert) it ends with the former representing the latter accepting the help needed. on.
Fallout: London, meanwhile, is set on a sad island, which isn't as good as Hawaii. While Shadow of the Erdtree we've all been debating whether DLC should be worthy of GOTY consideration, I'd argue that the massive creation of Team FOLON makes a very good case if DLC is allowed, mods should be too.
It is the an amazing achievement in and of itself that such a large volunteer-led project got across the finish line with anything close to what it did, and it's kind of a tragedy that ' the first collection of such a large release. If you can get over thatthe mod is not just a nice little extension Fallout 4 – just the kind of expansive, interesting attempt to bring the Fallout series back to its North American roots that I was delighted to see a professional studio backed by a very strong publisher on delivery
I'm not sure if it will ever go away New Vegas on my list of the best Fallout games, even with the fixes, but as someone who didn't like it the first Fallout TV series on Amazon as well as others just because it didn't really have the ability to offer the kind of different, unique perspective on the world of the series that I'm looking for, I'm really glad that London did.
Finally, Thank you very much You are here from indie studio Coal Supper is the kind of game that, once you've shown it to someone, you don't have to explain why you love it. I may be from somewhere just north of Yorkshire, but this picture of the beautiful English town is one that will speak to you wherever in our crap country you happened to grow up, assuming you did that in a house without him. way to a butler and a pony called Giles.
It's a funny love letter to working-class people living working-class lives, and in a year when more and more soulless slop has been sloshed onto our plates, including AI crap hitting the socials, the simple and human things deserve to be celebrated. .
Ok, you can bring all those other games back in now.
