Awesome, this is much more up my street than 52 which just isn't doable for me anymore. This will also help me stop buying games and focus on finishing stuff I already have!
I'll post my games and when I've completed them followed by a few words on what I thought.
1. Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty (PC) - finished 11/01/24
Really enjoyed my time with this. The expansion had a really gripping story which I played through before the last stretch of the OG campaign. Loved the combat, especially the hacking! 9/10.
2. Gears 5 (PC) - Finished 17/01/24
I needed this after Cyberpunk. A good palette cleanser that took me just over 9 hours to beat. Completed all the secondary missions in the open world sections, although wasn't a big fan of the open world parts. Will play through Hivebusters but won't count it separately as it's super short. 7/10
3. Dead Space Remake (PC) - Finished 29/01/24
So I picked this up back in a Steam sale last year and go up to around chapter 4. Since I finished Gears 5, I thought I'd go back to this one since I want to play through my backlog. I finished the OG Dead Space back when it first released on 360 and it was my one of my favourite survival horror games. I just wrapped this up and wow, amazing. Superb presentation, extremely atmospheric and just a ton of fun to play. 10/10 legendary game.
4. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2023 version - PC/Steam Deck) - Finished 25/02/24
This is one of those games that I had played an hour of and then turned off because I was busy with other games. Now I realise how silly that was, as this is a fantastic game and probably the best of the series (not by much mind). Easy story to follow for once and the gameplay is still so much fun. I had a great time with this one but felt like the last few cutscenes dragged on a bit in typical Kojima fashion. 9/10
5. Rage 2 (Steam Deck) - Finished 21/04/24
Not terrible but not great either. The shooting is really fun, but the game lets itself down with an incredibly boring open world and very repetitive mission structures. Missions typically involve, go here find this, or go here and kill this. Fortunately there are only 8 missions, the killing bit is fun and the weapons are pretty good. Whoever thought to lock weapons behind the Arks is stupid, I only grabbed a few as I didn't want to prolong my time spent with the game. 5/10
6. Aliens Vs Predator 2010 (PC/Steam Deck) - Finished 16/05/2024
Played this back in 2010 on 360 and remembered it being very average. Picked this one up for just over £1 and thought I'd give it a go. Definitely aged badly and playing through on Hard just made this process longer than I would have liked. Whilst it's not a terrible game by any means, it's certainly not very good and I wouldn't recommend it now. It all feels very dated in my opinion and some of the encounters are frustrating. 4/10
7. Boltgun (PC/Steam Deck) - Finished 03/06/2024
I picked this one up on release last year and played through a few maps, but dropped it for whatever reason. I saw it in my library and decided to play through the rest of it with this challenge in mind. This is a damn good time and although it is purposefully retro looking, it plays so god damn well and looks amazing. I was playing on hard and lowered to normal on the second chapter since some of the purge sections felt a little to sweaty for my liking. Perfect length too! Only took me 10 hours to beat and that was with some exploration on maps and looking for a few secrets here and there. It wasn't perfect and I wouldn't play through the campaign again I don't think, but I am looking forward to the DLC. 8/10
8. Mullet Madjack (PC) - Finished 11/06/2024
Played the demo and it instantly went onto my wish list before release. It knows exactly what it is trying to be and executes it flawlessly. The game play is extremely fast and frenetic but has a great sense of flow to it if you can think on your feet and use the right tools at the right moment. Gory, fun and has a great sense of humour. I tried this on my Steam Deck and whilst it is more than playable and the performance is great, mouse and keyboard is the way to play this one in my opinion, it's just so fast! It's a very short game when playing through the campaign (2.7 hours with a number of deaths on the later floors) but this is very re-playable. A very easy 9/10.
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3) - Finished 30/06/2024
I really felt like playing some older titles from previous generations and grabbed a PS3 with a bunch of games. I never played this one so made it the first title I went through.
I wrapped it up today and I'm in two minds with it. On the one hand it has some interesting weapons, it's linear and doesn't suffer with all the tropes of modern gaming and some parts of it are genuinely fun (tank missions were a hoot). That being said, it has the worst checkpoint system, the enemies are sponges unless you land a few shots to the head consistently and some of the levels are just fucking frustrating. I liked more of it than I disliked though. 6/10
10. Tekken 8 (PS5) - Finished 25/07/2024
Started playing this near launch and dropped it as I had other bits going on. Felt like playing a fighter and I was not disappointed. I've always enjoyed Tekken since combos are nice and easy to string together even for casuals and it looks flashy at the same time despite button mashing.
Fun story mode that probably only took around 3 hours to get through. My only gripes are the last two chapters that see you fight the same guy 3 or 4 times each and the cutscenes weren't for me so I just skipped them. 8/10
11. Uncharted (PS5)
I've never played the first Uncharted game and after finishing the first one (courtesy of the Nathan Drake Collection) I don't know why I hadn't played this sooner. What a fantastic game that knows not to outstay it's welcome.
There are a couple of mildly frustrating platform sections and maybe a couple of combat encounters that were not my favourites, but it's a fantastic game and I have had such a great time with it. 9/10
12. Mirrors Edge (PS3)
Played this as I got it included in a game bundle with the PS3 I bought. I didn't love this game on release, it was OK but definitely not worth all the hype in my opinion. Safe to say that I really really didn't like the second playthrough, awkward platforming in sections and the combat is dreadful. God knows why they decided to double down on the combat in the final third of the game. 4/10
That's a wrap for me this year, it was fun to take part in this challenge and I was able to play through some of my backlog finally. I'll continue to update this though I guess until the end of the year.
