The colors! Fun! The impact! Radiation! 2024 was a busy year for me with many tests, a visit to Gamescom as well as a first attempt at a video test to finally break into YouTube gaming. So I played a lot, wrote a lot and if I am going to talk about a few titles again, I will try to highlight here those which have not had the chance to be reviewed by yours truly.
I’m having more and more trouble with games that are completely disconnected from reality. It’s not for nothing that I spend my time on the circuits or on the highways of Euro Truck Simulator 2. Baldur’s Gate 3 may be very well written, but I can no longer imagine myself in these stories of dragons and ships. space, magic and completely fanciful gadgets. So, when games arrive with a connection, even distant, to reality, I can only be satisfied with it and it must be said that I was spoiled in 2024.
Le Fact’Or hawaïen : Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
So let’s start with a game where the hero rides on the back of a dolphin. Joking aside, the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has been talking about serious and current affairs topics for quite a few years now. Beneath its airs of a farcical drama, the series hides endearing characters in whom it is completely possible to project yourself, all in a hyper effective and gripping RPG. This last episode, although a little too long, can also boast of being one of the most moving, provided you have played the previous opuses. And then this Infinite Wealth has one of the best mini-games of the series in the form of a imitation Animal Crossing pitting us against scavenging pirates. A sumptuous and exciting episode.
The British Fact’Or: the Wilmot and Flock
I’ve already talked about it quite a bit on Factor. Play Wilmot Works It Out, it’s fabulous. Also play the previous one, Wilmot’s Warehouse. This doublet arrives via his gameplay to make us feel the satisfactions and frustrations of employment as well as the dizziness of remaining free time.
From the same duo Hollow Ponds / Richard Hogg also released Flock, a game of discovery of funny animals coupled with the exploration of a cute archipelago. For the simple pleasure of sailing on your winged mount followed by our herd of weird creatures, the experience is worth it, even if the purpose of the game ultimately seems a little vain to me given the lack of real stakes.
Le Fact’Or Austria: Dungeons of Hinterberg
A little nugget that went somewhat unnoticed for my taste, Dungeons of Hinterberg was my companion this summer. The game is a mixture of Zelda and Persona in contemporary Austria where magic has arrived in a mountain town attracting many explorers and tourists. The title tells us about burnout, regaining self-confidence, cronyism, tourist overexploitation. Yet another proof that we can make fun video games with a purpose without hiding behind heroic fantasy or science fiction. Own your ideas, for God’s sake.
Le Fact’Or provençal : Caravan Sandwitch
A great little motorized and non-violent exploration game in a post-apocalyptic Provence, Caravan Sandwitch presents us with a world concreted and then devastated by a large corporation, a metaphor for a magnificent but overexploited south of France. The narration then revolves around the characters still inhabiting this abandoned world after a catastrophe, with strong kindness. Unfortunately I do not believe for a single second that the descendants of the inhabitants of the PACA region will use inclusive forms of language but I am not going to be harsh towards a title whose one of the first quests is to organize an aperitif.
Le Fact’Or normand : Ys X: Nordics
Small step aside, Ys X reminded me that video games can also be a good way to clear your head. Action-RPG driven briskly during its phases on foot, the game is unfortunately dragged back by a narrative that is far too present to say anything and phases in a boat that are a bit pointless. Fortunately, the fights remain very dynamic, carried by a soundtrack in tune. It won’t dethrone Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana but after an end of year full of stress at all levels, it simply feels good to play a game that has no other pretensions than to relax you.
The Ukrainian Fact’Or of the year 2024: STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
After all the shimmering colors, why not ruin it by revealing that the winner for my game of the year is the all-brown STALKER 2? I must admit that I haven’t finished it yet but 2024 will remain in my mind as the year of the release of Half-Life 3 for fans of radiation and Eastern countries (damn it also works with Half-Life) .
After my early test of the game at Gamescom, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I was afraid that the title would have turned into Metro Exodus, a series that I never got attached to: limited open world, heavy narration without any interest in the service of an immersion that is more cinematic than felt. Fortunately, GSC brushed aside those fears with a backhanded radiation suit the second the game began in earnest.
This sequel is extremely faithful to the original opuses, whether in the environments, the mechanics or the general structure. It’s just sad that A-Life, the interaction engine between the different factions and mutants making the first games extremely immersive, is currently poorly implemented. But the most important thing is that the title regains its power of attraction and manages to make me want to stay all day exploring its depressing universe populated only by Ukrainian gentlemen in tracksuits. It is also a game haunted by the war in Ukraine and it is literally impossible not to experience certain situations as reporting.
The title is magnificent, with breathtaking weather effects (with the best storms in video games) and offers maniacal modeling of the locations explored, greatly contributing to the environmental narrative. The fights are tense, weapons clank, enemies circle around us. In short, it’s successful as long as it’s against humans, the mutants being just big pains which made me install a mod to lower their life points.
Let’s talk about mods. The longevity of the series has also been based on an almost endless supply of mods for the first games, culminating with Anomaly and Gamma. As soon as the game was released, a plethora of small mods arrived, reassuring me on the other aspect about which I had fears: STALKER 2 will become the new platform allowing all these modders to express themselves.
I bought the game with my full money on GOG to get the full Eastern European experience. Obviously there are bugs but… BOOM BOOM BOOM! Um, but what is this big techno sound I hear through the door? BLAM! It’s my last big surprise of the year, it’s Anger Foot who makes a sensational entrance at the end of my year 2024!
The Dutch-speaking Fact’Or surprise: Anger Foot
Having missed it at the end of the summer due to a busy schedule, Anger Foot is a naughty little masterpiece, a Hotline Miami in FPS view and one of the funniest and most fun games enjoyable games that I have been able to play in my life, even though Mullet Madjack has been there this year! Thanks to Steam Sales for reminding me of its existence and I’m teaming up with CBL to order you to play it.
Developed by the comedians from Free Lives, already responsible for Broforce and Genital Jousting (whose penis physics seem to have been applied to enemies), Anger Foot plunges us into the hell of Merdiqueville to beat up anthropomorphic enemies with tatanes and shotgun. THE gameplay is exhilarating, with a perfectly stupid cartoon aesthetic and a sound design in tune (special dedication to the grenades which let out a “cuckoo” sound before exploding). THE level design is not to be outdone, the game offering four different biomes with varied situations in each of its small levels.
Everything about the game exudes a kind of die-hard adolescent creativity that extends to the soundtrack. If Hotline Miami captured the spirit of its time by blasting synth-waveAnger Foot fully embraces the return of gabberthis Dutch hardcore techno popular in the 90s (i.e. there is a producer of gabber which is called… Angerfist). This culture gabber is also strongly present in South Africa where the studio comes from. The result is quite crazy, with speakers spitting techno everywhere, the volume racing during action scenes only to drop down between two kills and the enemies who start dancing when they have liquidated you. Enjoyable I tell you.
Le Fact’Or Motorsp’Or : iRacing
To finish, a little point about engine oil and head gasket: vroom vroom the pandas, it’s iRacing the unbeatable which arrives with all its updates! 2024 was a good year for car sims: Le Mans Ultimate arrived as a new challenger as the official WEC game, Rennsport was released in public beta and no one cares, Assetto Corsa EVO was announced for 2025 and Automobilista 2 has arrived with its version 1.6 retouching its tire physics and Low-Fuel Motorsport support for multiplayer.
Unfortunately for them, iRacing has finally made it rain on its circuits at €15 per unit and has therefore corrected its main shortcoming compared to its more modern competitors. In addition, an overhaul of the interface and physics is scheduled for early 2025 and an improvement to track debris has just been released, making iRacing the most complete simulation if we focus on the multiplayer, which is my case.
To celebrate, keys to F1 2018, Burnout Paradise and GRID are leaking somewhere, hidden in this article.
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