Game Box: What’s your favorite game of 2024 so far?

Infinity is not a number
I enjoyed GC’s list of the 20 best games of the year so far and found myself agreeing with many of them, even if there were many I haven’t played yet. I was happy to see Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth featured a lot, but I think for me it’s my number one.

I’ve played Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Animal Well, but the game I’ve enjoyed the most this year is still Infinite Wealth. I’ve definitely always been a fan of the series, but while I thought the character switching and turn-based combat would ruin it, it only made it better.

For anyone who hasn’t played one before, you probably don’t realize how funny games are, especially this one. It’s full of jokes about games, and pretty much everything else, and many of the mini-games are more fun than some full-priced games I’ve played.

So that’s my advice, but I’m curious to know what everyone else thinks, especially if it’s something that wasn’t on the GC list.
Tom Meadows

Plug the leaks
I’m fascinated to know what Nintendo has planned for the Switch 2 and its games. They seem pretty confident, if they’re busy collecting enough of them, there won’t be any point in scalping, and you’d imagine the Wii U’s mistakes will be something they don’t want to repeat. But who knows.

I’m still counting on a mid-autumn reveal, but I wonder if Nintendo has all these consoles blowing up, surely it’s inevitable that some pictures will leak out? I’m sure Nintendo will sue the culprit to hell and back, but I doubt it will put a guy off who doesn’t think it through very carefully.

I can only imagine how tight the security is at the factories right now, but I honestly hope it doesn’t leak, because it will be a lot more fun to see it properly revealed by Nintendo themselves.
Lister

Temporary incentive
I see that Palworld is already starting to slide back down the Steam charts despite the release of its new DLC. I just don’t think there’s room for more than a handful of these live service games to be successful. People not only don’t have the time, but they won’t give up something they already like to play something else that isn’t necessarily as good.

At this point, a live service game has to be absolutely top notch to get any real transaction, and while I haven’t played Palworld, I know that doesn’t describe Helldivers 2, which by all accounts is the best game .

This explains why Sony is charging for these games, even though it’s not full price, because at least that way they make some money. They must understand the risks, but I’m still not sure they’re worth taking.
Terry Gold

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The shadow of a chance
I have some advice for anyone having trouble with Elden Ring and its DLC.

1. You have a lot of energy. The more health the better. I have mine at 60+.
2. Use a mallet or large hammer or bleeding attacks with a large hammer.
3. You have a lot of stamina to run away.
4. Go to Haligtree for the best talisman against damage.
5. Breathe the Dragon’s Decay.
6. Use your mimicry in every fight.
7. Learn the Quit method to reset enemies that are chasing you.
8. Don’t start the DLC on the new game +2 like me. Enemies are brutal even with a lot of health and armor.
9. Explore the DLC to grab more scuda items, to make enemies hit a little less.

Using my tips, you too can get to the Rennala Twins boss, who moves faster than Sonic on crack and still shoots me twice even with full health.
Bobwallet

Old masters
If there’s one positive thing to come out of all the job cuts and industry chaos of the past year, it’s that I have a newfound respect for Nintendo. I’ve never been big on their games, but I’ve always agreed that they’re very good at what they do. Lately I’ve come to realize that they are very sensitive and take care of their business in a way that I didn’t appreciate before.

Many of their decisions make no sense from the outside, but it’s clear that there’s always a backup plan waiting in the wings. They brought out the Switch in double-quick time after the Wii U failed, and that wasn’t by accident.

Compare that to Xbox, which has been struggling for 10 years before giving up and buying everything – or to Sony, which has been completely unprepared for this generation’s problems – and they look amateurish by comparison.
In total

Some fuss
I just finished the campaign for Turbo Overkill on Steam Deck. It was released for PC in 2023, with not much fanfare, but it’s a very good cyberpunk first person shooter (of the ‘boomer shooter’ variety) that borrows from other games like Doom, Titanfall 2 and Vanquish to do something that stands on its own.

The game introduces new ideas and enemy types at a good pace (for the most part) and is ideal for shorter bursts of play as levels can be cleared in 5-10 minutes. The platforming is a bit infuriating at times, especially the grappling hooks that I’ve never mastered, but whether you’re swinging from enemy to enemy or sliding on your chainsaw leg, the game gives you plenty of options and is rarely boring.

The only negatives for me were that I was worthless at platforming (and when you’re worthless at it, the last thing you need is some timed sections relying on it, which appear right at the end of the game…). I also felt that it overstayed its welcome at ~16 hours: some content would have made it a better game, as the last two levels felt like you were just taking on more enemies and longer boss battles with you (but maybe if I had taken a break and wasn’t so eager to finish, I would have felt differently).

It’s not out for consoles yet, but I’d recommend checking it out if/when it’s ported, 8.45/10.
Magnumstache

GC: This is a very specific result.

It takes years to be this good
The Sega Neptune is cool and everything reminds me that we still haven’t gotten a Saturn mini-console and probably never will. I keep hoping it will happen one day because the Saturn was actually pretty big in Japan and Sega doesn’t seem to mind putting out stuff that only appeals to their audience.

However, this never happened, despite the strange rumours. I wonder if it’s because they are said to have lost some of the game code from back then, but surely they could just throw in a batch of ROMs and use them, as long as the emulation works? There is hope here.
Benson

Cheese camp
I think the fact that the only thing Capcom has said about Resident Evil 9 is the director is definitely meant to be a message. The only way I can interpret is that it will be more like the game he last worked on ie. Resident Evil 7.

I’m all about cheese and camp in my Resident Evil, but I think if you make too many games like that in a row, then you risk turning it into a total joke and it becomes impossible to go back and make it scary again. Resident Evil 5 and 6 basically got to that point (though they were also pretty bad, which had the same basic effect).

I don’t think it necessarily has to be a case of one scary game then one stupid, but I wouldn’t go overboard either way. My hope is a proper horror game this time, which I’d be happy to see experiment with the open world, and then at some point go back to something like a more horror comedy.

Resident Evil has never been quite as intentional, though The Village comes close. I’d like to see them hire a straight comedy writer and really go for something along the lines of Shaun Of The Dead or Zombieland. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright seem to be fans of Resident Evil, so why not ask them to help?
Dougie Sr.

Inbox-ka too
Sad to see that even the indie developers are laying people off now, with the job cuts at the studio that made Tales Of Kenzera: Zau. I don’t know if there will ever be a new normal that we can be happy with.
Throw it away

I don’t know if GC saw it, but a new Transformers game has just been announced. It’s mostly a racing game, and it looks pretty low budget, but I’ve seen worse and I like the designs, which are nothing like Michael Bay movies.
Oscar

GC: Hmm… On a more positive note, there have been whispers that the Activision Transformers games may become available again, as they have been mysteriously listed on Xbox and Steam – but are currently unavailable for purchase.

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