2024 Rys Retrospective – Part 1 (Games, Movies and TV Shows)

I figured it would be fun to write a blog entry regarding what this year has been like for me in terms of the things that interest me the most – what games have I played, which movies have I seen, what TV shows have I watched. This is what Part 1 will be about. As always, please bear in mind that these are my opinions, that are subjective.

I also do some cosplaying in my spare time and decided to include these interests and highlight this too in the form of the cons I have been to and what props and costumes I crafted. I want to focus on these in Part 2.

 

Rapid Recollections - Videogames

First, I want to take a look at the games – I will be covering those that came out this year as well as ranking them. At the same time, I want to make some remarks of the games that did not come out this year but I have played, for the first time. And there will be some honorable mentions as well. I will try to apply this format to movies and TV shows too.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

First up we have the second game in the FFVII remake trilogy. What can I say about Final Fantasy VII except that I love it to death? This entry not so much, though. Sometimes I love it. Other times I hate it. On one hand, it was really great seeing everyone back together again. They all look so amazing and are so amazingly voice acted. The script however was not so good. On another, the ending to this entry was terrible, because they did not do anything with any of the newly introduced plot elements such as alternate realities. Every aspect of “changing fate” from the first entry was entirely wasted. I am not salty because Aerith died again, but honestly with all the reality shifts and dimension travels they ruined what is a touching scene in the original. The gameplay was amazing, though! I am currently enjoying a hard mode playthrough and it’s the closest I will ever get to Dark Souls Final Fantasy (shoo, Stranger of Paradise, nobody wants you here). For me, this is a 6/10 – slightly above average. I would never recommend this to anyone other than super fans, however.

Alan Wake 2 DLC 1 – Night Springs

Oh man, what a ride. I was absolutely smitten by the base Alan Wake 2 and its only thanks to it, that I have taken up writing other things than reports or academic journaling. So, when I heard that the first DLC was released, I raced to my PS5 and played through it in one sitting – which was not very difficult, since it was rather short. Just like the base game it was great. It followed the format of the fake in-universe TV Show of Night Springs in the Alan Wake world that mirrors the real-life Twilight Zone. Which were my favorite little videos in the first Alan Wake. Here, they made 3 episodes in total that you can play through as part of your adventure in Bright Falls or you can directly load them up from the main menu, which is super convenient for me. Each episode had a different tone, different gameplay and each one helped connect the various games of Remedy entertainment together. There was even another Max Payne reference! 8/10 – very good! I can recommend this to every fan of the base game.

Elden Ring – Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

I do not want to take up too much space with this one, so I will try to be brief. It was very mediocre and after how thoroughly I enjoyed the base game, I was disappointed. The DLC was very big, perhaps four times the size of Ashes of Ariandel and the Ringed City combined and yet, despite that, there was only one area and one boss I actually enjoyed. Quantity does not equal quality. In a similar fashion, none of the new weapons or spells interested me and I played the whole DLC with my old STR/FTH build. They advertised new transformative spells (wings and such) and ashes, but they barely did anything – they were cool the first time, but I found them to be too situational. The final boss was an extreme letdown for me. The mechanics of the DLC when it came to power scaling where you have to collect all the items on the map to have your HP and attack not be divided by a percentage were really annoying. At first, I did not mind it, but after ten hours of running around and looking for shiny balls, I resented it. When it came to new NPCs and their questlines, I enjoyed one of them – Sir Ansbach and that was it. The twist of the story in this DLC was incest and I am so tired of the GRRM writing, please no more. Shadow of the Erdtree is a 5/10 for me. This DLC exists and that is ok, but when I will be replaying Elden Ring in the future, I will be skipping it altogether. I never skip the Dark Souls 3 DLC, though and I do not consider my playthrough of DS3 complete unless I beat Gael, the true final boss.

FFXIV: Dawntrail

Sigh, here we go. Dawntrail is the latest expansion to the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, which I love with every cell in my body. I breathe and live FFXIV. It is the best Final Fantasy game that ever existed (apart from Tactics, which is the best FF game of all time, as we all know). And yet… I hated Dawntrail. It has horrible writing, a boring story, one dimensional characters and it has more filler than an old Honda Civic that your uncle refuses to scrap in the junkyard. What happened to FFXIV? Where are the people that made Shadowbringers? I regret the time and money I poured into this, which was easily more than fifty hours. I hope they can recover from this, but unless they change the core writers it is not happening. From what I have read online, the original writing and localization team has left, so… I hope that is not true. Even if it is, though, we still have Heavensward, Shadowbringers and Endwalker which are all fantastic. Dawntrail is a 2/10 – terrible, please stop this, Yoshida-san.

World of Warcraft: War Within

Another MMORPG expansion hit us later this summer and considering the past three expansions for WoW have been abysmal, I was dreading the War Within. There were good signs. The main architect of the blatant teasing that was Battle for Azeroth, the absolutely disastrous Shadowlands and the mediocre Dragonflight, Steve Danuser has left Blizzard and Metzen was back. How much control he had over the creative direction of War Within remains unknown, but I had hope. And War Within was… alright? It was fine. I enjoyed the questing, the new zones as well as some of the balancing. I enjoyed the story bits with Anduin and Alleria, it was great seeing Khadgar back. I am still enjoying it to this day, I love my Blood DK as well as Ret Paladin. We are getting a goblin patch next and that is a theme I am not hot about, but we shall see. I would give War Within 6/10. Above average and enjoyable. Which is better than I expected from WoW at this point.

Space Marine 2

Before we played SM2, I had my wife play through the original game so she would have some context for the sequel. She knows her way around WHFB, but not about 40k very much. But we both loved Space Marine 2! It was really good. The story was fine, it was typical Warhammer. The gameplay was really good as well – the Tyrannids felt like a proper swarm, an alien hunger that wants to devour the galaxy and fighting them felt titanic in the heavy suits of the Ultramarines. SM2 was also the first WH40k videogame where I felt they nailed the feeling of the grim dark universe. The first game had a somewhat Disney/Avengers feeling to it, where the marines themselves felt larger than life and always saved the day (which is true, but for me there was not enough dark). The demons were also fantastic! The mythos, the lore and the universe of WH40k really came alive in this one. I also had a very brief interaction with the operations PVE multiplayer part of the game, and absolutely loved it! Space Marine 2 is a 9/10 easily. One of the best games of this year for me.

Alan Wake 2 DLC 2 – The Lake House

There was another Alan Wake 2 DLC planned for this year and that came out around spooky season. It is called the Lake House and directly develops the connection between Alan Wake and Control – the other Remedy game set in the same universe. And while I really liked the first DLC, this one felt forced and tacked on. There were really no new revelations, it tackled some themes of an AI creating art - imitating artists, which is a topic I feel strongly about. However, there was very little of interest to me in this DLC apart from some very unique looking monsters. There was a painter who was forced to experiment with the dark energies in Cauldron Lake that react to artists – this is the plot of the first game - Alan travels to Bright Falls, to Cauldron Lake and is swept up in a Twin Peaks mystery where his writing comes alive, but its all dark and twisted. Here, the colors from the paintings dripped from their canvases and formed monsters that chased you around as you explored, but apart from that I felt this was very redundant and did not enhance the experience in any way. 5/10, it exists and I do not mind, but one playthrough was enough for me. I will be skipping this DLC in the future.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Silent Hill 2 Remake was another great game I played this year. While I still feel that this remake was not necessary, because Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition exists, I still completed this game four times in a row now. The performances were great, the visual style was fantastic, the storytelling was on point. It did not change anything fundamentally from the original game and improved where it could. I have my own reservations about this remake, that I outlined in its separate blog entry, however, I wholly recommend this, even if you never played the original – which is somewhat unusual even for me, as I am mostly against the idea of remakes. In my review I gave it 8/10 and I stand by that. Come on, Bloober Team, give us the original score and Born from a Wish as DLC, I will pay for it right now. Take my money!

I have also played Terminator: Resistance and its DLC, the Annihilation Line. I really liked it; it was very reminiscent of the good non-Bethesda Fallouts (of which I am a great fan). I liked how it tried to tie everything into the first Terminator movies, because let us be honest, those are the only two that exist. There are no other, right? My wife played the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time and I have been watching her play, which has reminded me of my own journey with the series that I deeply love and enjoy. Being a fan of classic RPGs and DnD, I played Owlcat’s Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, which was a fine game at first, however too soon I became to dislike the writing and felt the game was too long. Just now I am finishing a fresh a playthrough of Pillars of Eternity 2, a nice classic RPG by Obsidian and the writing in comparison is miles better.

 

Rapid Recollections – Movies

There have been some movies that we have seen in theatres this year too. Here are my impressions (hopefully) in order.

Dune Part II

            Oh man, I did not enjoy the second Dune as much as I loved the first one. I am a huge fan of Lynch’s original Dune, as well as the book. I read it many times as a kid and have been trying to get through the rest of Herbert’s books as well. I had such high hopes for the sequel after watching the first one and I did not even mind the changes they made to the story and characters. However, the second Dune movie just left me bored and looking at the time. I am also not fan of Zendaya, I am sorry, but her pouting is just not doing it for me. I do not see Chani, I do not see MJ, I just see Zendaya and I cannot disconnect her from the characters, she is always the same. Kind of like the Rock, Jack Black or Kevin Hart. Except, those can be fun, sometimes. I was also disappointed they sacrificed Alia for more Chani and we had no gom-jabar baron assassination. The first hour just felt incredibly long and was not going anywhere in my opinion, while they really rushed the second hour to fit all the story from the book into the movie. By the time Christopher Walken appeared on Arrakis as the Emperor, I found myself saying that’s it? 6/10, it was alright, but not as good as the first movie, which is an easy 10/10 for me.

Deadpool and Wolverine

This movie surprised me. It rushed me, took me by the throat and slapped me around. I was NOT expecting this to be any good. And yet… I loved it to death. I have summarily declined to watch any new Marvel movies past Endgame, even though I was persuaded to watch the third Guardians (which I enjoyed). My hopes were very nonexistent, so my surprise was immense. I loved the cameos; I loved the actual longer cameos! I loved Gambit, I loved Blade and for the first time in twenty-five years I actually loved Wolverine. I was never hyped by any of the older Xmen movies (except First Class, which was a great movie with a terrible ending). Wolverine felt nasty, vicious and dangerous. He was unruly and rude. He was fighting to kill, lunging with claws extended and going for the throat. He was exactly as he should have always been. And I did not mind Deadpool, as much as I did in the previous movie. This was a 10/10, easily. A legendary movie that I will be watching a lot in the future.

Mad Max: Furiosa

Despite the fact that I love the original Mad Max trilogy (yes, even Beyond Thunderdome) and am also a huge fan of Fury Road which I have seen a dozen times in the theatre when it came out, I did not like Furiosa. I felt the movie was too long without a point, there were questionable story design choices, the effects and CGI were terrible in a series that is known for practical effects and the worst of all, I cannot defend the use of AI in any entertainment format; whether that is a movie, a game or music. There is a point in the movie when Chris Hemsworth was sitting on the roof of his car and looked at the camera stating that he is bored and wants to go home. Never before has a movie expressed a sentiment that I agreed with so fundamentally. It spoke downright to my core and I am even more disappointed in myself that I stayed until the end hoping it gets better. It did not. Was there anything I liked? Sure, it was fun seeing Immortan Joe again even though Hugh has passed and was this time played by a different actor. His voice was modulated by an AI, which is shameful. Was Taylor-Joy good as Furiosa? Yes and no. She was good as a young Furiosa, but making her look like Charlize Theron once again with AI imaging? Nah, that is a pass for me. With how much Miller used AI in the production, I would not be surprised if he even asked ChatGPT or another LLM to write the script. 3/10 and I hope this was a blunder or a learning experience for someone, not an inspiration. There already is a Fury Road prequel, which is a comic book and it is very good. I will never understand why they decided against adapting that. I hear that comic book adaptations are all the rage now.

Alien: Romulus

After the titillating experience that have covered the Fassbender – Scott yaoi known as Prometheus and Covenant, I have also given up on Alien as a franchise. Truly, nothing has killed my interest in a franchise faster than watching Fassbender make out with himself. Ok, that is not true, I only need to look at the newest Star Wars media and that feeling of a ruined nostalgia is easily reminded. However, once again, I was persuaded to go and watch Alien: Romulus, and damn… It is interesting to see what passionate people that like something are able to create. Ultimately, there were only two things I did not like about Romulus: the fact that in order for the plot to move forward, there had to have been stupid people involved (a typical horror trope from the 90s) and also that essentially, the movie did not bring anything new to the mythos of Alien. Which considering the atrocities of Ridley Scott (and others), is a positive. 8/10 – really good and I want to see more from the director Alvarez and the creative team behind Alien: Romulus, please.

 

And that is it for the movies we have seen in theatres. It is not many, but then again, there have not been many that caught my eye. I need to make some honorable mentions as well. These are films that have not come out this year, but I have watched them for the first time in 2024. Robocop 1 and 2. And holy shit, what a fantastic treat the first Robocop was! I never knew it was made by Paul Verhoeven, who made my favorite scifi of all time, Starship Troopers. The second Robocop - I did not care for that much, though. My wife and I both really loved Leaving Las Vegas with Nick Cage. We also saw Lost Highway by David Lynch and initially I wanted to see this, because it has been cited as the inspiration for Silent Hill 2 – but I did not like it very much. It was alright, but I was not overwhelmed.

However, I need to mention the best movie I saw this year – better even than Deadpool and Wolverine.

This is Godzilla Minus One – what a movie! It is just perfect. The Japanese get it, they know how to make a fantastic monster universe movie. I love Godzilla and Kong and even though I have not seen the latest Universal movies, because I did not like the first crossover they did, I gave a chance to the Japanese one. Usually, when it comes to monster movies, it is the human element that is terribly boring and you only care about the monsters, but Godzilla Minus One does exactly what the American movies try to do with Millie Bobby Brown and Ken Watanabe, and Bryan Cranston. I really, really cared about the human story in Minus One. I wanted them to be happy and safe. And Godzilla was this force of nature, absolute colossus of destruction and death. If you have not seen it and you like monster movies, you need to see Godzilla Minus One, which is a legendary 10/10 movie for me.

 

Rapid Recollections – TV Shows

My wife and I have really saw only a couple TV Show from beginning to end this year. Most of them didn’t even come out in 2024, but I would still like to mention some of them.

The Terror

Absolutely stunning storytelling of the Franklin expedition into the Arctic when the brave sailors went looking for the northwest passage around the Northern American continent. What is there not to love? The atmosphere is dreary, melancholic and scary. There is the usual paranoia and loneliness. And in the darkness and snow lurks something much worse than primal human nature. Epic TV show that I recommend to anyone, if you are a fan of polar expeditions or a slow creeping horror, or you just want to see a gripping tale, the Terror has you covered. I loved this so much and finishing it has left me empty and sad inside, but at the same so grateful that I got to experience such a journey. 10/10 legendary TV Show.

The North Water 

As far as the setting and themes go, the North Water is very similar to the Terror, but it is a bit shorter and somewhat more brutal. It covers some of the last whaling expeditions into northern waters above the British Isles. There is also Colin Farrel playing an evil murdering hobo sailor. Imagine Harry Du Bois from Disco Elysium, but instead of depression you have a murderous rampage. It was alright. The final two episodes were a bit too fictitious for me, felt too fake. But it was still a solid watch. 7/10 – above average television.

  Shogun

I am a ravenous consumer and fan of the Sengoku period in medieval Japan, so when I heard about this TV show, I was excited like a little boy. It also has Hiroyuki Sanada in the titular role, who is one of my favorite actors. He is that coolest Japanese guy in every Western movie. But alas, I did not enjoy it. It was by the first five minutes when I realized that none of what is happening in the show actually reflects real events and history. I quickly came to find out that that this is an adaptation of a book by an Australian American writer James Clavell, who wrote his own fanfiction of the Sengoku period. Instead of writing about real historical events and characters like for example Henryk Sienkiewicz, Leo Tolstoy or the modern Bernard Cornwell (all amazing writers who crafted immersive historical novels), Clavell just sort of loosely based his book on the closing years of the Sengoku period and made up his own characters. And I could not have been more disappointed. The actors were great, the production values were beyond high value quality, it’s just the writing and the source material which left me wanting something better. I kind of refuse to rate the Shogun, because I have never heard of the source material so I cannot judge it based on its merits as an adaptation. As a fictitious and completely made up historical drama, it was alright. 

            I have also liked seasons one and three of the Boys and was reluctant to get back. I have watched the first three episodes of season 4 and kind of never got back into it. The episodes were long, drawn out and out of every 60 minutes or so, only 10 were interesting. I am not coming back.

    

            I also have to mention Dexter and Supernatural. We are currently watching these shows at home – my wife never saw Dexter and I never finished Supernatural, but we enjoy both and want to see more.

            Anyway, this has been my list for games, movies and TV shows that I have seen in 2024. What were you favorites among these from this year? Do you agree with some of my remarks or disagree? What was your most favorite game and movie? Let me know in the comments. In Part 2, I would like to continue with an overview of my cosplay activities; I will be covering the cons we have been to with my other half as well as some crafting that I have done.