RIP 2024, 2025 does not announce even better after this year of transition for AAA games. Written with eight hands by JV team newly reinforced by the arrival ofItokiry and Neomantis In our columns, this mood note draws up the diagnosis of the video game and is projected around 2025. There are talk of layoffs in mess, censorship, moral panics on networks, sexuality in video game and vanity of big productions that fail inspiration. Does the video game necessarily have to chase the teraflops? As last year (see our balance sheet 2023 A record year), it is towards the independent video game that one must turn to see fully the singularities of a media of infinite wealth for little while attarded. You will find a selection of original titles ranging from Russia, Sweden, Taiwan and Serbia. Common denominator of the best games of the year, the gameplay always in honor with a supremacy of the Japanese, masters in their kingdom, even though Chinese logre begins to have appetite for the media. The video game has a grammar that makes it all the more tasty when it does not seek to imitate cinema. The team wishes you a happy New Year. Don't hesitate to give us your feedback on this exciting year and we will find you very soon for new projects for MaG.
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KillerS7ven balance sheet
YOUR WATCH ON THE WORLD OF JEW VIDEO IN 2024
PS5 behind, Switch 2 waiting and Microsoft in PLS
This is not necessarily the craziest video game I've ever seen, certainly because of a PS5 that tames the market without having started the fifth one again. Four years ago the console came out and except the masterpiece Return (read our critical), difficult to find an exclusivity that is worth the cost of investing, in any case for someone who has a hard PC available and a Switch. It is too early to say, but there is an environment in which exclusivity may be an outdated concept and where the platform would not matter. As for Microsoft, that seems far away the time of Xbox 360. It seems today that the American firm has surrendered.
Still remains the Switch that is still driving its way in the margins of the other two manufacturers who have been racing technology for the last twenty years. No promises of teraflops at Nintendo but a solid catalog, very Japanese, and first party DNA games revisited for its queen licenses, Mario and Zelda of which we hope that Metroid Prime 4 follow such a noble path. Doubts are allowed after a tumultuous development and a first trailer that looks more like a target render that a real game.
2024 was a less generous year than the previous one, which was sold out by an avalanche of securities: Baldur Gate, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Starfield, Super Mario Wonder, Alan Wake 2, not to mention the wonderful remakes of System Shock and Resident Evil 4. 2024 was certainly less gratifying but not exempt from good surprises. The trend towards successful revivals suvival horror confirmed with the remake of Silent Hill who dipped all fears according to Ummagumma and Itokiry, both unanimous. For my part, as for Alan Wake 2, I still haven't found time to get there but it will be done soon. Forgive me Ummagumma...
Gamescom in dark and moral panic on the networks
2024 is certainly a year of transition. For the Switch it is certain, since its succesful is desired; We should hear about it by March. Let's hope we can test it at Gamescom, a living room that was deserted for the first time in ten years, so much the line up announced was hard to have. And because of this, publishers were absent from this edition, too busy managing their com from A to Z by giving the paw to a few influencers on the road. We cross our fingers so that this rejection of the press by the big stables of the video game is not a fundamental trend.
At Sony, even a bell sound, since we finally saw new licenses at the Game Awards. Enemy bad buzz around dIntergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and The Witcher IV. A great moment of ridicule that once again demonstrates the toxicity of the networks and the progression of online masculinism carried by an extreme right who gabled on the street on X / Twitter. Awesome moral panic that limits the obsession of an alleged conspiracy wokism to the controller, neologism to the tote that m-horipilles and whose concrete reality remains abstract. When I hear this term, I can't help but think about the discussion between Anakin and Q-Gon in The Ghost Threat :
Yes, or perhaps my memory of the midchlorians derailed, forgive me... Anyway, you understood the concept: we were given a parade of men's comments with pale complexion and upset manhood to write about the plastic surgery that Ciri would have to undergo to respond to their fantasies. A simple search for the word Ciri on Twitter recalls why Musk's platform is now called X. An avalanche of nudes diverted from Ciri in all the most vulgar imaginable positions. Like that, deep fakes even affect virtual aerobics.
Even unpacking for the next Naughty Dog game, where former French journalists were able to offer a look « alternative » Insolent heroinIntergalactic: The Heretic Prophet As if a Snapshat filter had been applied to it after a foundation spread. Shaved hair and a simple bomber generated a delusional indignation, while references to Alien and Akira Yet it seemed clear. If there is one thing that distinguishes a work from a product, it is the concern for the author's indifference to his audience, something that is recognized in Naughty Dog, Hideo Kojima or Shinji Mikami whose artistic decisions bear witness to their respective personalities.
Sexualization and temptation of censorship
The video game, more than any other media, seems to be drawn by the question of the representation of women and minorities, no doubt because its hot mode of production too often brings it closer to a product than to a work and that sales should not be upset. Too bad it takes such grotesque turns on both sides of the spectrum. Last year we saw some self-proclaimed sensitive readers calling for a ban on Stellar Blade, Korean game whose design of her heroine, certainly very sexualized way Ghost In The Shell, is based on the motion capture of the Korean model Shin Jae-eun who has already been able to express freely on the subject.
If it seems obvious that the developers of Stellar Blade have never hidden their fantasies (is it a crime here?), the receipt of the title by some m has seemed much more problematic as if the video game was today full of denuded ageries and that it would be systematically a synonym for the degradation of women. Even the warriors of the nanardesque series Mortal Kombat wear collars today when their male counterparts are in briefs in the arena. Curious indignation with variable geometry...
Moreover, the title is a niche game intended for an adult audience in a completely fanciful universe, where one could at the limit worry about the quality of writing his character rather than the size of his hat. The issue has taken on a hypocritical turn in Japan, particularly prone to censorship when it comes to explicit content of a sexual nature, whereas the country should instead question its society, which has a problematic relationship with women. And it's not Stellar Blade which should be criminalised. The few hours spent in the company of Eve did not let me see anything shocking, if this is the platitude of the character. Let's be honest for a moment, was history really the priority of this beat them all anyway?
Ubisoft in pain or Disney video game
On the other hand, publishers like Ubisoft are bogged down in smooth and puritan games where the emptiness of all identity reigns in master, always with the aim of rubbing no one on the Disney model that I would never fail to do without. Last example to date, the secondary presence of a black samurai in the next Killers Creed, a drama that has generated a lifting of shields as ridiculous as the purely mercantile approach.
In a dedicated article, Le Monde explains very well his identitarian treacheries of the land of the rising Sun when an American publisher deals with the history margin of the archipelago. In addition to the fact that Ubisoft offers empty shell gameplay, the loss of Ubisoft may be no stranger to its stated taste of sensory readers in addition to a toxic management that limits control freak. All this while we know very well that history and Ubisoft is reduced to architecture. Remember the French revolution according to Ubi and his many inepties of what to defrocate a without-culotte did! Could the giant Ubisoft be stripped and bought by other big fish?
Soon one Videogame Book Authority ?
Caution is needed, as we know how much the US (especially) AAA market is retreating to a form of censorship that should never take place and whose first victims will be the perpetrators. We are still talking about the world's first power where the first amendment can simultaneously defend freedom of expression and where, as with others, manga Killing Classroom is about to be banned in some key US states. All this because of a complaint from a nine-year-old girl who would have been better off buying an automatic rifle from the local Primark so she wouldn't hurt anyone.
And this kind of movement that is concerned with preserving the mental health of your children also exists in our home. The world of comics has been given the same kind of scandal with Bastien Vivès, a character certainly detestable; for proof, Wretched weapons on social networks speak of themselves, no matter how late he will apologize once caught in the media. A classic of those who know they're guilty. However, did these unglorious facts really justify that he was dedicated to gemonies and assimilated by his work to a child criminal to be interned? That's to wonder how Ranxerox would have been welcomed today, while this Trash comic book was awarded in Angouleme in 1983 and the body built of the robot even made the cover of the album cover The Man From Utopia American satirist musician Frank Zappa.
In this precursor comic book of the steampunk, Liberatore whom we know for his superb erotic drawings as his illustrations of the Flowers of Evil Draws the story of a killer robot stuck in the ultra-violence mode and dating a crack girl who exploits it sexually. It was after writing this article that I discovered that Liberatore had exercised an immense influence on the works of authors such as Loustal, Bastien Vivès or Jean-David Morvan who entrusted themselves to Telerama in an article entitled evocative: « When I see a Liberatore drawing, it's like I'm looking at a great porno. ».
Let us remember, however, how the Bastien Vivès case took an off-ground turn. At the end of 2022, the Innocent Associations and the Foundation for Childhood each filed a complaint with the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office against the author, as well as against its publishers. Sharks and Glénat for « dissemination of child pornography, incitement to sexual assault on minors and dissemination of violent messages to a minor ». As if absurd drawings were of the same order as child pornography videos whose real porn sites are trodden today. Hosters complicit in criminal networks play the map of criminal irresponsibility in near indifference despite real victims. How convenient.
On aurait tort de minorer l’issue du procès à venir pour le monde de l’édition déjà frileux et les répercussions qu’il pourrait générer sur tous les pans de la culture. Combien d’éditeurs et d’artistes oseront encore publier et dessiner sur des terrains sensibles aussitôt instrumentalisés sur les réseaux ? Si ces maisons d’étitions indépendantes pour publics pourtant avertis étaient condamnées, soyez certain que le spectre de ce que l’on peut représenter se verra drastiquement diminué. C’est aussi méconnaître la condition des auteurs qui patinent à trouver un éditeur qui n’hésite pas à « apurer » l’oeuvre de ce qui pourrait heurter son public cible avec pour conséquence directe : l’auto-censure.
Dans le monde voisin du cinéma, l’association chrétienne intégriste Civitas, fraichement dissoute pour des propos antisémites, n’en était pas à ses premiers faits d’arme pour avoir réussi à invisibiliser nombre de films comme Nymphomaniac by obtaining the withdrawal of their operating visa. And each time, the same question arises: have these supposed defenders of virtue only read or seen these works before asking for their prohibition or do they want to establish a new social order reactionary? Prudence therefore in a society that increasingly refuses the values of others, especially when they curl the decadence of a drawing lying on paper as a cathartic fulgurance. Criticize rather than ban.
Also show a little second degree in a world that struggles to understand the absurd and irony today. For those who still doubted it, the hypocrisy of #JeSuisCharlie is therefore definitely naked. The world of video game, like any other cultural object, is not alien to these questions and it is necessary to guard because the censors watch the grain. In the video game, sexuality, it remains one of the dead spots of the media with few exceptions as in Baldurs Gate 3 where all romances, even inter-species, are conceivable with a writing quality unique to the genius of Larian Studios.
Out of network polarization
All this is all the more regrettable because people forget that the media can also show (when it wants) that it can write female or minority characters who have nothing to envy in cinema. Naughty Dog did it with Ellie without sticking a lesbian stamp on the teenage relationship. Same for Abby who questioned the blind quest for revenge with a character away from the cannons of beauty and the supposed female fragility. Long before Jackie played by bodybuilder Katy O Love Lies Bleeding (read our analysis), Abby gave the image of another body carrying new possibilities. These plural representations must exist without it generating moral injunctions or, on the contrary, nudity, two equally unbearable through me.
Fortunately, the scene has been showing itself for decades that it has nothing to envy to other cultural objects such as cinema and literature. Rare are the AAA games authors but they exist. Let us strive to respect the artists' approach, rather than to enhance our values that are narrowed around the world. Are people only able to get out of their algorithmic bubble to suffer from the difference? We can really enjoy it. The Last Of Us and Stellar Blade I don't think it's any different. Decidedly the audience and part of the video game are still in the teenage stage.
The video game, new tool soft power Middle Empire?
Another marker of the year, the recent success of Black Myth: Wukong that gives you vertigo. Enjoy yourself: by the end of September the game already exceeded the 20 million copies sold worldwide, only one month after its worldwide release on PS5 and PC. For comparison, games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring It took 21 and 24 months respectively to reach the 20 million copies. Alone GTA V had claimed such a success in two weeks. What lessons can be learned from this tsunami? First of all, we should keep our heads cool with these figures, since it would appear that 75% of sales came from China. Nevertheless, this still makes five million sales in just one month, which remains a compressor roller.
Secondly, we must connect this success to China's (very) recent opening to video game, this continent having long been reluctant to sell consoles. Only since 2014 have the inspections of the cultural authorities formally lifted the ban on sales of consoles in its territory. Since the 2000s, China had taken a defensive position because of the supposed negative effects on the mental health of small Chinese. So why change the jam today? No doubt because China has revised its position to open the world to Chinese culture and mobilize its soft power as Americans have always done so far.
Wukong's success should, in my opinion, cause concern to the Americans but not only. While the Japanese market is doing well, Microsoft is clearly lagging behind to be polite and it is no longer forbidden to imagine that the American giant would become a dwarf again when leaving the console race. Japanese publishers who tame the market artistically and in terms of sales should also question themselves. In the animation film sector, for example, it is on China's side that one must turn to see the most ambitious new trends as was the case for the great The Kingdom of Abysses (read our critical) or for Thunderstorm whose director will soon be interviewed Zhigang Yang.
It remains to be seen whether this opening on the market also rhymes with a lifting of feet on Chinese censorship that is known with an iron hand. On this point, it goes without saying that we are more than sceptical. It is enough to see the delusional restrictive conditions of the interviews of Chinese authors that we were able to carry out in Annecy. For the time being, very promising game announcements are multiplying as Wuchang or Phantom Blade Zero. The success of free to play Genshin Impact Probably announced color in 2020. Korean games also multiply as Stellar Blade (read our critical). In general, is this not simply a consequence of what is also observed in the international context, i.e. a shift in the « centre of the world » To Asia leaving the West behind? For the player, it may not be an opportunity to get out of the Manichean prism and its ever-ending Russian, Chinese and Arab enemies at each time. Call Of Duty. The battle of cultural hegemony is just beginning...
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
I deserted Helldivers II...
Source : Sweden | Developer / Editor : Arrowed Game Studio / Sony | Release date : 8 February 2024 | Critique to read Here
I had started on the wheel hats, jumping like a cabre between the sharp mandibles of these insectoids. Helldivers II had even managed to reconcile me with the on-line game after years tracking the bounty hunters of Hunt Showdown (read our Interview). Nervous, original and technically impeccable, Helldivers II But check all the boxes so you too can join the front. The game is a condensed action in the straight line of Starship Troopers. Deeply focused on gameplay and the team play, the missions have a great time. If the pleasure of the discovery was great, yet I got out of the game for no reason worth. So my disappointment of the year is not Helldivers II strictly speaking but the fact that I have deserted my intergalactic mission to save humanity. Recent updates, however, suggest the best. Arrowhead was overtaken by its success that the studio probably had not anticipated. Just writing these few lines makes me want to go back there to see what became of my fellow wrestlers.
WHAT ARE THE 5 GAMES THAT YOU RETIRED THIS YEAR?
Unicorn Overlord
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Vanillaware, Atlus | Release date : 8 March 2024 | Critique to read Here
The kingdom of Cornia is invaded from the beginning by General Valmore. As a well-respected putschist, this demonic knight self proclaims heir to the lost empire of Zenoira. Following this flash invasion, the young prince Alain, forced to leave his native lands and reduced to wandering became the leading force of the resistance. Objective: to build an army and regain power to avenge his fallen soldiers. Unicorn Overlord Aura owned 80 hours in about ten days... For all his qualities and despite his academicism question narration, Unicorn Overlord can rise without blushing among the best tacticals of the year and even media.
While Vanillaware had announced financial difficulties during development, recent sales figures are very encouraging for the studio. Beautiful, demanding, rich and dense, the last Vanillaware has everything to seduce tactical feruses. Profoundly addictive, the game is based on roded and intelligent mechanics. This grand feeling is carried by the intelligence of the gamedesign. Everything is life-size. Every battle is real size on the map of the world that thus gains coherence. It's simple, you never feel like you're in doll houses like you often do in tacticals. A game to support for an extraordinary studio and certainly my year game!
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Capcom | Release date 1 July 2024 | Critique to read Here
Kunitsu-Gami heel Unicorn Overlod in my year selection. The unlikely marriage between the Tower Defense and the Beat Them All, all sprinkled with a touch of strategy, Kunitsu-Gami opts for an original gameplay, where you have to lead a venerated dancer to the end-level Torii door before dark, where monsters come to attack our convoy. Developed by Capcom Division 1, the game is inspired by a secular ceremonial dance, the kagura which means « entertain the gods » in Japanese and where masks occupy a central place.
Resolutely focused on experimentation, freedom and learning by error, the game is a full experience and a pleasure of every moment. Driven by an enchanting artistic direction and a concern for detail that forces respect, Kunitsu-Gami has benefited from a human-sized development with an out-of-time artisanal dimension for such production, which also requires respect. You are strongly encouraged to try to soak up his atypical universe and his gameplay off the beaten track.
Frostpunk 2
Source Poland| Developer / Editor : 11 bit Studios | Release date : 20 September 2024 | Critique to read Here
Last fascistoid simulation of 11 bit Studio, Frostpunk 2 is a demanding and radical management game in the glacial era, which goes even further than its predecessor with a more assertive political turn. This time, we will have to manage the different factions and try to make sure that the votes in the Plenary Assembly are guided by what makes our National Assembly today ungovernable a child's game. The temptation of power quickly friezes the coup d'état and the game leaves the part to experimentation and the permanent dilemma. A truly captivating stroke that makes us explore the extended, vast territory to colonize that gives a macroscopic dimension to management, like Civilization. Brilliant, addictive and clever. To be consumed without moderation to prepare for fascism.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Grezzo / Nintendo | Release date : 23 September 2024 | Critique to read Here
38 years: that's how long it took Zelda to get her first game as a heroine. For his first solo adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom raises the bar very high and does not have to blush his performance. Generous, the game opts for a different approach and that leaves free short to inventiveness, decidedly the common denominator of this cuvée 2024. The echo system makes us collect in a bulimic way the monsters of the universe to solve inspired puzzles or to better return them against theirs.
Despite the technical concessions that do a little work for a Nintendo production of this acabit, Grezzo holds a beautiful alternative to the adventures of the Hylien with the green tunic. We were afraid of a zeldaxploitation, on the contrary we hold a game that abounds with ideas without ever falling into recycling. Forgive us Nintendo for doubting, Grezzo can boast of having made one of the best Switch games in the catalogue.
Indika
Source : Russia | Developer / Editor : Odd Meter / 11 bit studios | Release date 2 May 2024 | Critique to read Here
An anti-religious bluish or deep reflection on the vanity of faith, this is the question that tarauds the player in search of meaning in the face of a world in decrepitude. One thing is certain, it is not the patriarch of the Orthodox Church who will give holy anointing to the developers of Odd Meter. Faithful of the Kremlin and the voice of his crusade against so-called Western (so-called satanic) values, the Russian Church has already chosen its side. Write with accuracy, Indika is a brilliant proposition that one would cruelly want to put in the hands of a blessed ass to see it liquefy in the face of the climax of the religious. Express experience that ends in four hours, the adventure is short but mastered from end to end.
In the register of good real actions, they, the developers ofIndika also propose to give some of the funds to Ukrainian children victims of the famous « Special military operation » who doesn't say his name. Overtaken by the conflict, it was from Kazakhstan that the developers were able to complete their work. Hide this war that I cannot see and whose indelible traces are read behind the desolate landscapes and mutilated characters ofIndika. The game of Odd Meter shows with panache that belief is only about one thread and that religion exists only when one renounces asking the right questions. Mass is said and we hope to see other Russian productions also engaged in the coming years.
WHAT IS YOUR COUPABLE PLEASURE?
Dragons Dogma 2
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Capcom | Release date : 22 March 2024 | Critique to read Here
In the logic of the famous mention of guilty pleasure, two playful experiences have a very found place. First the return of Dragons Dogma has not been done without a hitch. Ode to travel and exploration, the game drew its pin from the game in the highly prized circle of the open world. Yet the game failed lamentably on what is easier and excels on what is usually very hard to achieve. At the launch, when I discovered the Capcom title, the main quests were blocked and bugged to the marrow at a level I had never seen from my player experience.
And yet, I took a crazy pleasure in exploring this wilderness, so close to feeling the emotions of a catapulted walker in the middle of the desert. I took Dragons Dogma 2 as it is: an introspective journey, a flamboyant wild ride, a challenge against oneself carried by the sole force of will of the traveller. I set myself a single goal: to shoot down the dragon who had challenged me. I picked it up. Dragons Dogma 2 is a resolutely anarchic experience but how whole. A game that slices into the so consensual landscape of open world teleguided. As long as you are willing to forgive him for his real flaws and allow yourself to free yourself from his rules, Dragons Dogma 2 is in its own way a step game for the open world Japanese.
Dodonpachi Resurrection
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Cave / Live Wire | Release date : 25 November 2021 | Critique to read Here
Second candidate all found guilty pleasure, Dodonpachi Resurrection m I plunged into the scoring to bleed with eyes. But what a wonderful arcade experience for experienced dolorist. I say it and say it again, Bullet Hell is life. I still dream of his screens saturated with multicolored pellets like a Pollock canvas under acid. These moments of grace when one surfs between waves of enemies to make a way up the screen, to the nearest to death.
It's not a slap that we take at first but a correction, a real beating in rule from which we come cabossed as never before. Yet once we have picked up our snags and bandaged our wounds from the remains of our pride, we have the rage of abhorrent, the reverse of failure. The rage that promises us to touch the gates of the resurrection, the honey rivers, the virgin miles and the whole barda. Jesus, Dodonpachi is like a pizza coming out of the oven. We can't wait until it cools so well that we burn the pain blade but we keep eating it without hesitation. Pure masochism. I let you enjoy my gameplay above if you still have doubts.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2025?
Like I'm tired of saying I'm waiting Hollow Knight Silksong whose silence is worrying (is the Australian developers still alive?), I would start by asking about one of Big N's best first party studios. What has Retro Studios been up to for so long? What the next game of Masahiro Sakurai, an ardent perfectionist author who quietly revealed that all the videos published on his YouTube channel had been recorded more than two and a half years ago, all realized on his free time for the 90 million yen (nearly 600,000 dollars) , without that he seeks to draw any cent from it. An investment designed solely to inspire and guide creators. My respect for Sakurai San! I also look forward to Shinji Mikami's next game, which no longer ends reborn from its ashes, from studio to studio closure.
I also burn impatience to discover Doom The Dark Ages And I sincerely hope that Bethesda's passage under Microsoft will not harm him. I confess to being concerned but the talent of the studio and the regressive side of this new medieval Doomslayer m
The Alters has also been pushed back to 2025. Would it seem that the studio which created cruel games from the point of view of civilians as This War Of Mine or Frostpunk he also had to separate some of his artistic talents. A cruel tragedy that erupts men. I cross my fingers so that it doesn't affect this terribly original new simulation where you will have to collaborate and live with yourself to hope to survive on a hostile planet.
Recently announced, The Heretic Prophet I'm curious. Naughty Dog seems to come back to a lighter tone game, but I'm sure, with the same quality of writing. After years working on a postapocalyptic license as The Last Of Us, I imagine it will do them good, even if – Polichinelle's secret – the three part of the game is certainly already in pre-production. More than GTA VI of which the sympathetic campaigns have never really embarked Red Dead Redemption, I particularly expect the next Mafia plainly entitled The Old Country and whose first trailer was very emotional.
On the inde scene, I wait Animal, the true spiritual son of Little Nightmare (or even our Interview of Tarsier Studio) whose last opus had conquered. Don't be wrong, the license today was given for the best and probably for the worst. Developed by the original directors of the first two, Animal can already boast of having an DA in line with the two previous games. He lets me hope the best, unlike Little Devil Inside 3 which is on the side of the multiplayer. A heresy for a horror game.
It is impossible not to mention the next Playdead project, my favorite development studio to which one already owes the masterpieces Limbo and Inside. Always discreet about their communication, I hope they will surprise us with their next game. Finally my love of arcade makes me clumsy for the next game of the studio The game Kitchen (Blasphemous), I appointed Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. The first gameplay extracts show a nervous game with 2D licked. I sign my eyes closed. I'm also waiting Silent Hill f to see what the developers released from the originals can do, but is it honest of me when I still haven't touched the remake? Curious to see also what will give Little Devil Inside, my last Kickstarter in every sense after years without news. And the series Devil May Cry I miss Capcom if you read us! And then of course, I expect the PC version of The Last Of Us Part 2 to restart the two games on my 4K projector with a fluidity at all costs. I'm already glad.
YOUR OST OF YEAR?
I didn't play as much as the rest of the team, that's for sure. But I was nevertheless very sensitive to the work done by the teams of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Capcom seems to have left the cubits straight so as not to be limited to a genre. Good mastery And I recommend you empty-handedly look at the make-off of the game to convince you.
THE GROWTH WORLD WAR, IF YOU HAVE A JEW TO GET IN YOUR BUNKER, WHAT CHOOSE?
This year, with my brother Ummagumma now emigrated to Canada, I was able to remake one of my favorite games, forever engraved in my heart, I named Dino Crisis. It's probably on my CD and PS1's jacket that I'd embark on my bunker. It is on him that I would throw my demise because it is one of my very first games discovered when I was not to be more than seven years old. Despite the years, the title of Shinji Mikami, avant-garde and precursor of Resident Evil 3, did not take a wrinkle. It's my Proust madeleine.
A universe in which I plunge my head first, as bewitched by these musics from the Cretaceous Hospital. Yeah, that doesn't mean anything, but I'm a little confused on an island, no doubt I'd be caught up in madness. If necessary, I would opt for Donkey Kong Jungle Beat story of typing the conga until the early morning and beating my youth records of an unjustly misestimated platform game. It may become tiring in the long run, it's true, even more so with the bunker's sound box. Well... otherwise it will be Retual to prepare me for purgatory in all possible configurations. After all, why live under Earth. Death pays nothing to wait.
Neomantis review
YOUR WATCH ON THE WORLD OF VIDEO JEW IN 2024
AAAs out of inspiration?
The crisis in the video industry is cancer. A protuberance that continues to grow, especially among the largest entities on the market. Despite an effective dominance in the video landscape, breathlessness is evident. In my view, these are the apparent symptoms of this tumor that eat them. The brains of decision-makers divide and see only notes to amass, numbers to grow. The disease calls for a waste. Still more money invested with the hope of getting more and more profit. Always longer, bigger, more beautiful games. Not necessarily better from the videoludic point of view, because this excessive bulimia inevitably leads to neglect aspects of game design. Blinded publishers who are able to muzzle talented teams, refusing any creativity, any attempt at novelty or improvement.
The result is studios that dominate the video landscape thanks to their formatted AAAs, which are in obvious creative breakdown. Finally, with a few exceptions, everything is only copy, copy, copy... And I'm not going to stretch out on the aberrant infantilization of these mastodons. Let's just remember that there was a time not so far away, when 8-year-olds were able to make quarters of circle in Street Fighter 2. They could come to an end Red Pokemon, Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider (those of the time), with determination. But continue to put yellow paint on a scale, in addition to futile indicators on the screen, in yet linear softs.
A Playstation vibe
Nevertheless, as I already noticed last year – in view of my personal considerations – my love of the JV, as well as the hope that the industry will come back into question in order to treat its cancer, are strengthened. I had a very good year as a player and the year 2025 seems just as promising. A vibe inherited from the PS1/PS2 era is manifested here and there, whether it is through an aesthetic or a gameplay. A time that forged my identity and my tastes, but equally memorable for the industry as a whole. And that's not because it was necessarily better before. There are formulae, Metroidvania for example, licences also like Devil May Cry – for gameplay and writing in any case – or GTA, which have become better over time. But, perhaps, there are still too many games and concepts that give the impression of falling back. At least to stagnate, not to be able to totally do better.
These important years for the industry did not only distil great successes, there was a lot of failures. However, it came from all types of studio, small and big, the desire, it seems, to create a good game above all. And that was enough. A period of creative emulsion, euphoria and experimentation. Seeing works claiming to be of this happy period comforts me. This comforts me, because I am no longer afraid to find myself incessantly reviving the same games that are aging, for lack of finding many titles of the same cabit for a decade. Because spending time in experiences without real flavor, too quickly forgotten, I find it hard to bear it.
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
Dragon Ball : Sparking! Zero
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Spike Chunsoft / Bandai Namco | Release date 7 October 2024
Obviously, even if I like the game and amuse myself when I throw it, Dragon Ball : Sparking! Zero remains a disappointment. Just because I had expectations that were not sufficiently met. There are points that please me and talk to me, there is a recipe of time faithfully transcribed, too. On the merchandise, Bandai did not betray his promises. If it is only by scratching a little, we discover a lot of varnish and a game that convinces less than these illustrious predecessors at various levels. The failure of the history mode remains an important problem for me, as well as the translation worries that hurt the eyes. In fact, the problem with this opus is mainly to have erected it as an incredible game and to have supported it so much without a minimum critical mind. Because it was possible to do better, much better. A very good return of the formula Budokai Tenkaichi, but which does not achieve excellence yet to carry hands.
Of course, there is a constant concern about financing the adaptations and the problematic development times for creative teams. Only, that's the fear of being faced with a franchise like Game Freak. A money pump, of course – without a bad word game – but which, qualitatively speaking, has been returning for at least 10 years. More than a formula that doesn't evolve, it's a formula that unwinds and lets itself go. I got off Pokémon, to my great regret. That was it, or become a receptacle of frustration. Keep at least Dragon Ball, although since DB Super, not to mention the death of the master, things have already been lost. Anyway, I expect more from the license, fortiori on a video-based experience more focused on solo. As such, Kakarot was already very disappointed, partly because of lack of ambition.
WHAT ARE THE 5 GAMES THAT YOU RETIRED THIS YEAR?
I didn't. Like A Dragon : Infinite Wealth at the moment, or could try the experiment Children of Sun. Two games I had to mention because, potentially, would be there. From what I could play, the 300 hours on Tekken 8 They force him to be placed. A rather excellent title, perfect for newcomers. However, as a fan of the first hour – Tekken 2 In reality – and with a decent level of play, I consider it as the soft of the franchise that comes with technique, logic, but also in its gameplay. Indeed, the license had never yet reached such depth and richness of play.
However, I also consider it less good than episode 5, and a little less interesting than the 7 on the game philosophy advocated. The franchise still changed, the direction was taken since the questionable 6th tier, except that some things didn't have to be there to sell. Even if the kind needs it furiously. The absence of a competitor in the 3D ring forced Tekken to pee in 2D fighting games to denature, in part. With the aim of evolving without relying on his achievements. There is also a whole reflection on the accessibility of combat games, complicated debate. Besides, in my opinion, T8 proves that it's pretty absurd. At the risk of repeating itself, yesterday as today, children perform Hadoken at the controller or the arcade stick. Without sleeping on the game.
Stellar Blade in my catalogue of the year. I grew up with the beat em all Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, I still play a lot. And while the soul of FromSowftware, except Bloodborne, don't talk to me, either Elden Ring – the first hours too boring for me –, Stellar Blade helped to better understand my problems with the formula « soul-like ». More than what Nioh could have made me feel, especially as the Korean soft is much closer to a Beats All than a FromSoftware game. I'm not going to linger, a paper exists. Then comes the case Ace Attorney Investigation Collection, it also already treated on the site Here. What more can I say? We play Benjamin Hunter, the intrigues cling to the trilogy featuring Phoenix Wright, it's finely written and the fulgurances are notable, especially on the second part. If you like frankness, it would be a crime to ignore.
Continue with Undisputed. Unfortunately, this success has not been relayed, with a million copies in just three months. The very first game of the Steel City Interactive studio celebrates English boxing and reflects an obvious enthusiasm for a portion of the audience. Far from being perfect, Undisputed is no less a game concocted by enthusiasts and whose mere existence on the market does great good to lovers of noble art. The emphasis on leg play makes a significant evolution since Fight Night, and the generous casting of current boxers and boxers to make fun. If the game follow-up continues and the developers are working to make the necessary improvements, and there is a bit of work, we could have a great soft. Or the birth of a future licence worthy of that name. Case to follow.
Sliterhead. Yes, I must mention that for the atypical proposal. And maybe you don't even know his existence. What I could say about the vibe PS1/PS2, over this period, with the creative and artistic considerations put forward, everything is there, and in the next chosen work. First game of Bokeh Game Studio, headed by the father of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush, the baby has a lot of approximations. However, the work on the atmosphere and the reconstruction of the Kowloon citadel, not to mention the singular game design, make it a game to the unique and rather radical proposition. I soon knew that I would not remain indifferent to the creative approach. I got a brain snack. Kowloon's narrow, peaty alleyways, like Akira Yamaoka's scores, will haunt me for a long time. Hard to recommend, but terribly interesting.
To conclude, standing in front of the mirror, I invoke Lorelei and The Laser Eyes. Lorelei and the Laser eyes. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes... A funny individual then appears and asks us: « Do you know why monkey-like people need the art of magic? » It doesn't matter whether you know the answer. Buy it!
WHAT IS YOUR COUPABLE PLEASURE?
I like the imperfections of a work. They are likely to give him personality and character. In addition, as outlined earlier, I am in line with my tastes and expectations, « shame » do not cross me and I find myself misqualified as a valued experience « guilty pleasure ». I can't help but see a negative connotation. I guess softs as bad as that.Undisputed and Sliterhead must appear here. Despite my love for these two proposals, it goes without saying that they do not address everyone and do not pretend to impose themselves as the best work in the world.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2025?
Too many games I look forward to. What is certain is that we won't bury until we've played Like A Dragon Pirate Yakuza, Fatal Fury : City of the Wolves, Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta, nor MGS Collection – for MGS 4. The same for Phantom Blade, GTA 6, Spine, Borderlands 4, Mafia and Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Mention also for the return of Shinobi of Sega, while I hope news of Wuchang, Virtua Fighter 6 and Penny Blood imagined by Matsuzo Machida – kind of spiritual son of Shadow Hearts. Despite all these names,45 Parabellum Bloodhound is probably one of my greatest expectations. Dark soft developed in the shadow, with no acting release date, but strongly inspired by Parasite Eve. Finally, Children of Sun. Can't make it run on my poor PC, I feed the hope of seeing console versions disembark. I'm already suffocating.
If I move a little away from the games, we will see if the industry, especially the studios confined to the AAA, finally decides to reconnect with the ludism and creativity that are lacking nowadays. If they will be able to raise the level, evolve the medium instead of stupidly singing the cinema and run after the stupid quest for photorealism. To the detriment of the singularities of the video media, especially its interactive dimension and immersive capabilities, which should guide a game design. And then, in all this, if we could all make the effort to better educate, to cultivate empathy and questioning, not to let ourselves go on social networks like emotionally unstable children, maybe the human, the JV industry too, will emerge from it.
YOUR OST OF YEAR?
Because games without music are still rare, little musical moment. If I were to remember that only one OST would be that of Shin Megami Tensei V : Vengeance. Failing to play the game, I found myself unfortunately hearing some notes of music, and the charm opera. Once the OST was launched, the journey could begin. A long journey of several hours. A hearing journey so incredible that I miss words. Still today, I cannot express my feelings. Many melodies come to haunt me at night. I will also mention the music of Stellar Blade and Sliterhead who accompanied me in a beautiful way during their adventures. And how to forget Tekken 8 and its myriad of quality pieces, or Ace Attorney Investigations Collection worn by talented Noriyuki Iwadare.
THE GROWTH WORLD WAR, IF YOU HAVE A JEW TO GET IN YOUR BUNKER, WHAT CHOOSE?
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Ryū ga Gotoku Studio / Sega | Release date : 25 January 2024
Here's the kind of question that brings out the worst in me. I find it difficult to comply with such restrictive rules, even if it makes it possible to bring a framework and avoid mentioning 300 names. So I would mention only a dozen. Because I am willing to sacrifice a few rations and lose precious pounds in favor of extra games. It's also a good excuse to list heart games. Titles that nourish my passion for the medium and inspire one way or another. So here's a list « reasonable » which, I think, would allow me to stand mentally, without getting tired. A game loop that is one of the most important in my life and that I will not forget. Devil May Cry 3, Ninja Gaiden 2, the quadrilogy MGS, MK 11, Tekken 5, Shadow Hearts, Pokémon Platinum and Soul Reaver, Borderlands 2, Sleeping Dogs, Darkstalkers, Parasite Eve, Bayonetta 2, Astral Chain and one Like A Dragon and Yakuza No doubt...
Ummugumma balance sheet
YOUR WATCH ON THE WORLD OF JEW VIDEO IN 2024
If we focus on the AAA industry, then the large budget JV sector clearly appears to be struggling. I am thinking for example of Insomniac Games which repeatedly realizes with its Spiderman For Sony, a significant part of its workforce is being transferred to the approach of a fiscal year. Thank you for your resilience and dedication to our company and the whole tralalala of bitter thanks of which the top leaders of Western companies are fond, with capitalism primarily oriented towards shareholders and which differs a little from the old capitalism still in force (for how long?) in Japan, which moreover was much more spared by dismissals. The time of Satoru Iwata, who reduced his pay during the financial turmoil that Nintendo suffered in the Wii U era, seems far away.
But I am not going to radify what my dear colleagues' feathers above and below are so well explained. And then anyway, when I look at my list of games that I finished in 2024 (40 games, all the same!), I notice that it's not the big budget productions that made me vibrate the most. Indeed, as we divert our magnifying glass from the gargantuas of industry, it is the wonder that prevails with an independent creative offer more vigorous and original than ever.
When I think about all that these tight budget games or AA caliber games made me feel, I really think that it is on these offers that the future of the video game rests, not on a few pixels in addition to Spidey's brief. Be careful, I am not saying that the AAA should disappear, only that a graphic level seems to have been reached and that it would be good time to ask the question of the financial viability of such modernism. What says longer development time means much less creative risk taking, titles like Alan Wake 2 being the exception rather than the rule...
In conclusion, if I were to sum up in two words the industry today the bicephalous JV in 2024, I would say « sick » for the AAA and « more inventive than ever » (Yes is 4 words) for the independent scene.
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Ryū ga Gotoku Studio / Sega | Release date : 25 January 2024
If there is a game that disappointed me this year to the point of dropping it after about thirty hours, it is the last one Yakuza, namely Like A Dragon : Infinite Wealth. I think I've had my dose, not of this universe, oh that not, but of this constant submission to the grind and the farm, to the point of having lost the new RPG system introduced by the excellent Like a Dragon.
To tell the truth, I found that Infinite Wealth was much weaker than his predecessor at all levels. We pat in the Yakuzaxploitation To the neck. Archetypal characters are now caricatural, history drags in length and is much less touching and... DOUX JESUS This grin out of pity I don't WISH MORE to constantly approach all the fights in the same or almost the same way. These repetitive combats, able to lobotomize an inmate in Guantanamo alone, were the only way to accumulate enough experience to be able to defeat an umpteenth boss-sac-à-PV in a non-strategic fight for a penny.
After doing Yakuza 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon, I regret to write that YakuzaFor me, it's over: and saying that Kamurocho was the city of my first love. I'll never forget you, Kiryu!
WHAT ARE THE 5 GAMES THAT YOU RETIRED THIS YEAR?
Pacific Drive
Source : USA | Developer / Editor : Ironwood Studios / Kepler Interactive | Release date : 21 February 2024
At the time of writing these lines strikes me clearly. Pacific Drive is clearly my game of the year. There is a quidam blocked in a huge radioactive zone, and that will have to create a portal to escape the wheel of his car. What's up? The area is infested with aberrations and other physical phenomena that are against you or your vehicle. To escape, you will therefore have to collect resources in the Area and tuning your scrap pile in a garage, the only peaceful place of the game, like the backup room of the first Resident Evil. The goal is to make your car more resistant to the different monsters and electromagnetic phenomena you will encounter on your way.
Each excursion is a source of stress and is carefully planned on a map. In Pacific Drive, we spend our time running or driving like a derailment, because the watch plays systematically in our disfavor and death is always on our side. Indeed, past a certain level of instability, a giant storm triggers way Royal Battle and forces us to drive as fast as possible to a transport gate that will take us back to the garage. As I roll all around between the trees that decompose and the music, grandiose, rises in intensity, I freak out. I'm afraid I'll lose all my loot and get disintegrated by the storm before I reach the gate. No checkpoint during missions gentlemen: this is your life and, skeleton rogue lite requires, part of your progress that is at stake.
Around me, everything burns, flies or cracks; stones arise from the ground and send flirt with the top of the trees several meters high. Then I set off the turbo that I just installed a few hours ago. The vehicle comes back with a crash by sending valdinguer a tire and smashing the windscreen. The battery is almost flat and the engine moans, but you have to believe it. I suddenly realize that I skate in the mud: horror, the tires are flat. Hurry! I open the trunk so quickly that I take it in the middle of a pear. I'm getting the spare tire that I had crafted in case. Always be ready in Pacific Drive. The wind now blows so loud that the car starts to move sideways, quickly get back on the wheel at all costs, now! At the price of a final acceleration and as the doors dislodge, I finally finish reaching the transporter. Like the Doc in Back to the Future, I cross the gate that takes me back into the silence of the garage, only disturbed by a thunderstorm that roars away.
My heart is beating so fast, I feel it vibrating in my chest. My hands are all moist and I realize that I haven't blinked from the eyes since what seemed like eternity. My car is ruined and is more than the shadow of itself. I have a lot of work to do, but I did it this time anyway. It should also be noted that the game is graphically sumptuous and adorned with magnificent light effects, among the most beautiful that I could see.
Leave wife and children and play Pacific Drive.
Elden Ring : Shadow of the Erdtree
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : FromSoftware / Bandai Namco | Release date : 20 June 2024
What do you mean a DLC in this highly subjective Top 5 of the best JV 2024? Yes, this extension had the merit of reconciling me with Elden Ring, whose proposal had bothered to convince me compared to his illustrious predecessors. I was especially disappointed by the level design, much weaker and less labyrinth than in the previous From Software, the fault to a structure open world which favoured open spaces to the more confined environments and mazes of previous productions. Also the fault of the presence of a card, which swore with the mental geography that each player had to produce until then.
Shadow of the Erdtree managed to meet almost all my frustrations by delivering perhaps the best level design Never designed by the studio since Dark Souls. I got lost a lot, I dug my head to fix the map for long periods of time to try to pierce the secrets of its relief. I threw myself an incalculable number of times to always try again and never give up, going from discovery to surprise (by beating too!) until finally reaching the final boss of this majestic epic that could have been a standalone game by itself. A real slap.
Nine Soils
Source Taiwan| Developer / Editor : Red Candle Games | Release date 26 November 2024 | Critique to come
I like when games erect walls of difficulty of insurmountable appearance in front of me. With its very successful level design, its beautiful BD graphic style, its sublime OST to the Nier Automata and his full-bodied difficulty that makes him want to be ever more surpassed, Nine Soils, that I'm about to finish in the next few days, makes a bursting entry into this top. A metroidvania for masochists: what does the people demand?
Indika
Source : Russia | Developer / Editor : Odd Meter / 11 bit studios | Release date 2 May 2024 | Critique to read Here
How not to quote Indika, which questions the absurdity of religion, the selfish motivations that often motivate faith in God, war, sexism or sexual impulses, all with a humor mixed with darkness that I had never seen elsewhere, much less in the JV. An insolent and absolutely unique pearl to discover urgently.
Children of the Sun
Source Germany | Developer / Editor : René Rother / Devolver | Release date : 1 February 2024
Second position on my personal podium of fun 2024 section « FIRE WEAPONS », right after « fire with Second World War weapons in the woods of a libertarian gunsmith in New Hampshire » ? I have appointed Children of the Sun Hey! It is a sniper with a rather special ability that would have allowed in the real world not to miss Trump last July: she only needs to shoot once and her ball is able to hit several targets. The result is a puzzle of deaf cradoc violence that pushes the player to choose the best lethal route for his bit of lead, each murder allowing us to redirect him. Really an excellent game with an aura grunge which recalls the film Mandy And he didn't make much talk about him.
And the others...
We said Top 5, that's true, but I'm also forced to quote in bulk the excellent ones. no-click Midnight Scene : Safe Place, An English Haunting, The Rise of the Golden Idol and Home Safety Hotline. Also the survival horror Still Waves the Deep and Conscriptor power defense of beat them all Kunitsu-Gami. I would finally quote the beautiful CRPG old school Skald : Against the Black Priory and the very-fast-FPS Mullet MadJack.
Note that I have not yet had time to play the following games, which I intend to catch up in the coming months before attacking the 2025 releases: 10 Dead Doves, Animal Well, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Mouthwashing, STALKER 2 and Threshold. Who knows, one of them might have gotten into my ranking.
WHAT IS YOUR COUPABLE PLEASURE?
I like the horrific nanars of Supermassive Games and The Casting of Frank Stone Two beautiful evenings. What do you want? I'm a simple man. Give me some jumpscares, an achievement cheap, script clippings do you want some, a rocky story and dated facial animations and that's enough to make me have a good time. The Casting of Frank Stone Is it objectively a good horror game? Not really no, but he made me laugh despite him dozens of times in addition to chopping me into his scenario that would make pass Remember last summer for a Palme d'Or in Cannes, and that's not annoyed.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2025?
Hibernaculum
Hibernaculum is a Dungeon crawler horrific at the crossroads of the worlds of Giger and Cronenberg. That's what I think I don't need to say anymore to justify my expectation and now yours if, like any person of good taste, you like the defiled beings, at the border of death and covered with pipes in fusion with their organs.
Project C / Project D
I'm waiting for the next two FMV games of Sam Barlow like the messie, all the more so as he will sign one of the two (unless it's just one game?) in collaboration with Brandon Cronenberg. Almost all his previous works, by the founder Her Story at its height, Immortality, were revolutionary and redefined the game in FMV and thus, in a way, cinema. I am not just waiting for her to dive into the horrific register with impatience: I am overexcited.
Tenebris Somnia
One survival horror which mixes real shots and 2D aesthetics. Damn the little lines, tell me where to sign!
YOUR OST OF YEAR?
OST chiptun of the Skald : Against The Black Priory This year, I was vibrating and listened to him several times as I was engaged in my daily activities. Low hat to his composer for having been able to restore the epic breath of an epic, as well as the indescribable anguish of a twilight and Lovrecraftian atmosphere. I share a lead above, for the pleasure of the ears. Oh, and play it. It's also about my year-round graphic slap, as the DA is sumptuous.
THE GROWTH WORLD WAR, IF YOU HAVE A JEW TO GET IN YOUR BUNKER, WHAT CHOOSE?
I'd probably take the fantastic The Long Dark, whose replayability of the Survival mode is infinite and which would allow me to meet my snow and forest needs while I am transi in my bunker. I've got some of them. sung praise here. Note that I would also hide a cake of Resident Evil 2 In my underwear.
Review of Itokiry
YOUR WATCH ON THE WORLD OF VIDEO JEW IN 2024
The layoffs in the video game, one bleeding like another
If I chose, a few years ago, to permanently move away from any social network, whose predation techniques I find absolutely abominable especially in order to make us waste a crazy time in the wind, it is first and foremost because the news does not interest me. Thus, I would be unable to engage in an analysis of what happened this year through the prism of the events that paved it. Dismissals, studio closures, grunts against a particular mastodon of industry... Not only do I know nothing about it, but I also tame the squid. All the fields suffer, the one in which I also work, so goes life, and it is not because one uses the media better at his disposal to let him know that he is more to complain than others. Of course, some meagre information managed to cross my opaque wrong-wave filter, and nothing seemed to go into the world of video game. Again, I probably saved my morale, and perhaps more generally my mental health.
Survival Horror in Honour
What I know, on the other hand, is that, after seriously considering abandoning the video game in 2022, 2023 metres were put back on good track with its incredible nuggets, and 2024 continues on the same track. After the remake of Resident Evil 4 Last year, this year I discovered that of Silent Hill 2, which I devoured in a few days, lucky that I was having him a few weeks early. Although I am a bit disappointed at the absence of the little extension dedicated to Maria, exclusive to the Director-s Cut version of the original game, or the too many monsters to shoot in the campaign, I nevertheless have a now blind confidence in the work of the Bloomer Team, which I did not carry in my heart before that. Let's hope Konami makes the right choices for the future of his series just back from the dead. A remake of the first or third part seems to me all right now!
And of course, 2024 was the year of giant insects. Helldivers II, little overvitamined candy for which I not only bought a PlayStation 5, but in addition extended by two weeks a period of unemployment planned to recover from the end of the year , m And the announcement of the imminent arrival of Earth Defense Force 6 outside the Japanese archipelago filled with undefinable joy. If I don't think it was particularly appropriate to release Earth Defense Force: World Brother 2 only eight weeks after this new classic of dumb and uncomplicated shooter, I certainly can't complain about this strange release schedule. Too bad that after that I was quite disappointed by Starship Troopers : Exterminations. Serious arguments, yes, but too many problems to please me... We'll try again in a few months, hoping the updates have corrected the shot for good.
A MaGnificent Year?
And then, 2024 is also my arrival in the columns of MaG, and the reopening of my backlog. Too many outings kill the outings, after ten months of chaining tests and novelties, I ended up letting go of the lest, and focusing on the titles that do me good (Vanquish and DOOM for example) as well as the amount of games that I have sideways. My Steam account looked at me wrong, anyway, when I was in the wind for a part of Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel without even paying attention to all the independent nuggets in my library. So I was able to catch up on some pretty amazing titles like Hades, Faster Than Light, Hollow Knight... All nuggets. I, who did not carry the Rogue-like (or lite) in my heart, am now addicted to Balatro Also... Well, sacred year, hopefully the next one will be less hairy, because I definitely need a break, especially to get back seriously to Yu-Gi-Oh! and Magic in real life. Doesn't that sound like a feeling you're saying?
WHAT IS YOUR YEAR'S DECEPTION?
If I had only one, it would be without hesitation. Alone in the Dark (or even note Interview by Mikael Hedberg). This series, I love it by proxy, knowing it without knowing it, having mostly played there very young at a time when the discovery of Resident Evil He was thirsting for horrific discoveries... I was ready for anything for this reboot that was inspired, which I already loved the visual and musical atmosphere before its release. And then the first grip proved catastrophic. Bugs of all kinds, slowdowns, heavy gameplay, environments sometimes very pleasant to the eye, sometimes perfectly forgetable, abominable fighting and very disappointing scenario over time... What to learn from this experience, which seems to miss everything she does, if not Alone in the Dark Is definitely condemned to remain a good memory? The forerunner of Survival Horror is dead.
But I still want to talk about a subject that caused too little ink to flow to my liking: the release of a game Stargate subtitled Timekeepers. A real-time strategy game focusing on infiltration of enemy-filled areas. Concept which, already on paper, does not seem to me to be a good seller, and works little with the atmosphere of the series, the film, or even the novel while we are there. And I have to admit to being thrown into it full of hope, before disillusioning so quickly that I almost gave up before closing the first part. Yes, the game has the daring to come out in two pieces... Who's waiting for the second one? An excellent question, to which I find only one answer: fanatics frustrated by the total absence of Stargate games in the videoludic landscape, unable to refresh their strange impulses. Somewhere I understand them, and I envy them a little too. But for my part, I'll put Stargate Timekeeper instead of rightfully, in the nearest trash.
WHAT ARE THE 5 GAMES THAT YOU RETIRED THIS YEAR?
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Ryū ga Gotoku Studio / Sega | Release date : 25 January 2024
I've already discussed Silent Hill 2 higher, too eager to talk about this new masterpiece to wait longer, Idem for Helldivers II and Earth Defense Force... So who's left? Like a Dragon : Infinite Wealth, to begin with, that I expected on firm foot and that I ate, as every time a new opus disembarks. Touching, devilishly well written, addictive... a game that I would have liked to return to, but SEGA and Ryu ga Gotoku seem determined to speed up their release pace with the sole aim of preventing it. I can't miss Kunitsu Gami : Path of the Goddess Nor, true breath of fresh air that personally made the PS2 era very nostalgic. Which falls pretty well, since Star Wars: Battlefront and his suite returned in a remastered version, with active servers, for my pleasure. RIP in peace my social life...
Source : USA | Developer / Editor : Angel Matrix / Annapurna | Release date : 25 January 2024 | Critique to read Here
And then this may not be a 2024 game, but I can't stop talking about Neon. White, certainly the best video product I've touched in the last two or three years. Yeah, it comes out of the big words right now, and believe me, I tried not to address the subject to stay in the theme... God, what a game! Unable to pick up once embarked in its singular atmosphere. And this hybrid gameplay, between platformer and First Person Shooter, Deck Building and Speedrun... What to say except that we have a real genius hit there? Finally, I think my test speaks for itself anyway: I am as conquered as one can be, and I will defend body and soul this experience that I now let sit at the same table as the Vanquish and Pokémon Blue Version. In other words, my handful of favorite games that I regularly raise.
WHAT ARE YOUR ATTENTS FOR 2025?
I'd be tempted to say that I don't expect anything, too busy eating my backlog away from my eyes for a long time... But it would hide the truth. And the truth is, Metroid Prime 4 Call like a mermaid calls the sailor. That Like a Dragon : Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii It's impossible to make an announcement, as much because it looks completely barred (more than usual?) than because it's Goro Majima who flies the star in Kiryu and Ichiban. That DOOM : The Dark Ages Makes me want to sleep eight months to be fit enough on the day of his release (and especially for time to pass faster). That Project : Robot already conquered, before even seeing the slightest piece of gameplay, just because it seems impossible for Ueda to disappoint me. That Silent Hill f Makes me want to believe in the future of a series that I love more than any other. Stay at last Gears of War: E-Day, which I will devour like all other franchise opus, probably solo to begin with, then in cooperation. 2025 memorable announcement.
YOUR OST OF YEAR?
Without hesitation, I'd say Neon White. It's dynamic, it's weird, it's strangely addictive... Kind of like the game she came out of. But Neon WhiteIt didn't come out this year. So if I had to stay in the nails and quote something recent, I would go on Silent Hill 2 Remake. What a pleasure to rediscover Yamaoka's songs, extended and reworked by Yamaoka... a delight of which I do not tire, and which will represent almost another guilty pleasure!
THE GROWTH WORLD WAR, IF YOU HAVE A JEW TO GET IN YOUR BUNKER, WHAT CHOOSE?
Source Japan | Developer / Editor : Platinum Games / SEGA | Release date : 22 October 2010
There are too few games I don't get tired of. So without hesitation I would say Vanquish, even if I am tempted to take a PokémonFirst or second generation... But to think about it, why not Diablo III ? Anyway, nothing is worth a good chess game, Stefan Zweig taught me.
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