Games fin­ished in 2024

At the start of 2024 I started keep­ing track of every video game I was jug­gling so that I could ac­tu­ally fin­ish some­thing, es­pe­cially the ones that have al­ways been stuck on my back­log. And the var­i­ous plat­forms’ “year in re­view” wrapups are nice, but they can’t cap­ture gam­ing ac­tiv­ity on my Analogue Pocket, or on an em­u­la­tor.

So, as usual, I did it my­self.

When I say “finished” I mean “beaten” or “rolled cred­its” on it. I got all the way to the end. Finished does not mean “I just stopped play­ing it.” Those don’t make it on the list.

Speaking of the list, here it is!

December 2023 (bonus)

• Alan Wake 2 (PS5, 2023) — fin­ished on December 31, 2023, so if I had waited just a lit­tle longer, it would have counted! That’s okay — I get to the DLC later this year.

January

• The Wolf Among Us (PC, 2013) — Classic Telltale re­ally did have some good sto­ry­telling. I tried to get into the comics, too, but the game just felt su­pe­rior.
• The Expanse: A Telltale Series (PC, 2023) — I wish I could say the same for new Telltale. I like every­thing about The Expanse, but it’s hard to top the show.
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens (PS5, 2019) — Shantae is al­ways just stu­pid fun.

February

• Policenauts (Saturn (emulated), 2016 English fan trans­la­tion) — It was im­por­tant to me to ex­pe­ri­ence all of the Kojima oeu­vre, and I’ll say more about this game once I’ve also played Snatcher.
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch, 2024) — I got all the way to the end, turned the dif­fi­culty down to fig­ure some stuff out, and did­n’t get to fight the fi­nal boss the real way. Whoops.
• Road 96 (Switch, 2021) — The story sticks with you, al­though my ver­dict is still out on whether the pro­ce­du­rally gen­er­ated, non-lin­ear chap­ter or­ga­ni­za­tion was good or even nec­es­sary.
• South Scrimshaw, Part One (Steam, 2023) — I can’t re­ally de­scribe this ex­pe­ri­ence. Imagine play­ing an art.
• Cannon Spike (Dreamcast, 2000) — Turn the dif­fi­culty all the way down and you can beat this in an hour.

March 2024

• No Case Should Remain Unsolved (Steam, 2024) — I was han­ker­ing for a Golden Idol, and this had a de­duc­tion sys­tem I never quite un­der­stood, but it was a good mys­tery story in the end.

April 2024

• Hime’s Quest (Game Boy Color (emulated), 2023) — It’s a Crunchyroll promo piece in the vein of clas­sic Zelda. It was okay; I was try­ing to mess around with home­brew ROMs.
• The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color (emulated), 2001) — I would say, just play clas­sic Zelda. I’m still part way through its com­pan­ion piece, Oracle of Ages.
• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5, 2024) — Too many minigames, not enough an­swers. Looks very good, though.

May 2024

• Animal Well (PS5, 2024) — Just what does “finished” mean when it comes to Animal Well, ex­actly? I got through the sec­ond level, if that means any­thing to you.

June 2024

• The Complex (Steam, 2020) — I don’t re­mem­ber why I loaded up an FMV game, other than some­one rec­om­mended it and it’s got Michelle Mylett from Letterkenny on there.

July 2024

• Chants of Sennaar (Switch, 2023) — Indie puz­zle games are kind of my jam, ac­tu­ally.

August 2024

• Thank Goodness You’re Here (Switch, 2024) — One of those silly in­die dar­lings — hey, any­one else re­mem­ber that goose? It’s weird and fun and enor­mously British (and proud of it).
• Slay the Princess (Steam, 2023) — It’s gonna be hard for me to de­scribe this ex­pe­ri­ence. It’s a vi­sual novel, but it’s crazy and sad and wist­ful and joy­ous and strange, all at the same time. I’m go­ing to come back to this, on a day when my re­solve is stronger.
• Sea of Stars (PS5, 2023) — The de­vel­op­ers wear their love of Chrono Trigger on their sleeve, but they also re­ally could have used an ed­i­tor.

October 2024

• The Walking Dead — Season One (Xbox 360, 2013) — Holy shit. I got the feels. Still have the feels. I can’t tell you why (spoilers).
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (PS4, 2017) — Like God of War but on drugs, and I mean that in the best way.

November 2024

• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch, 2024) — I en­joyed it. Giant open world epics are rel­a­tively new in the Zelda canon, and I like that they go back to their roots on oc­cas­sion.
• Alan Wake II: The Lake House (DLC) (PS5, 2024) — This got me ex­cited for more Control. (Also, Remedy’s take on AI-generated me­dia fits so nicely into their creepy uni­verse.)
• Alan Wake II: Night Springs (DLC) (PS5, 2024) — Kind of hard for me to fo­cus when I’m just think­ing about Control again.

December 2024

• Astro Bot (PS5, 2024) — Went in with zero ex­pec­ta­tions even though every­one in the world heaped praise on it (and voted for it to be Game of the Year). Is it the Game of the Year? Pretty damn close. The sound­track still buzzes in my brain.

I think this was al­to­gether a cool ex­er­cise, so the list for 2025 has al­ready started! Be back in a year.