Welcome to Punished Notes, Volume 36! To get the year started off in the right direction, I’ll list some brief and simple New Year’s resolutions, share some games from 2024 that just missed the deadline for my tier list, and discuss my latest TV binge being on… CBS?!
A Different Kind of New Year’s Resolution
In past years, I’ve whipped up a set of New Year’s gaming resolutions as a way to motivate myself to be a better gamer, critic, and… person, I guess. This year, though, I’m taking a somewhat different approach. In short, my resolutions will be fairly basic, and I have no intention of doing another backlog challenge.
At the start of 2024, I pledged to finish a set of games from my backlog by the end of the year, only for… well… various things to get in the way of that. My backlog remains jammed, even more so than before, and even the smaller challenges I set for myself failed to take hold. Play what I already own? HAH! Better to just buy more collections and save them for later, am I right? Abide by the “Two Week Rule” for new purchases? Fat chance! What am I supposed to do when something NEW and COOL and EXPENSIVE comes out? Wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS like an IDIOT?!
In all seriousness, I’m going into 2025 (I can’t believe I just typed those numbers out) with fairly simple aspirations for gaming, ones that are—as far as I’m concerned at this moment—easily achievable. I plan to actually finish Metaphor: ReFantazio (only about 20-25 hours left, I think); start, but not necessarily finish, another Dragon Quest game (besides Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, which I began this past Christmas); and purchase one (1) classic game cartridge from a retro gaming shop during my planned trip to Tokyo this year (flights are already booked, it’s happening). This all seems easy enough, which is by design.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from looking back at my 2024 resolutions, it’s that, like in most other parts of my life, I’m a little too hard on myself. The “Two Week Rule” exists just to make me feel bad about spending money on things I actually want. Creating a backlog checklist that I failed to complete just made me feel like I couldn’t achieve even the most basic tasks. Even “play what I already own” as a general rule just dampens the excitement I have for new and unfamiliar experiences, which is core to my enjoyment of this medium in the first place.
In 2025, I’m not doing any of that. Resolutions should be an opportunity, not a punishment. This year, I’ll make sure of that.
A Couple Games That Just Missed My GOTY Tier List
Over the past month, the unthinkable has occurred: I have played not one, but TWO 2024 games after publishing my 2024 Game of the Year tier list that absolutely rank among the year’s best releases. Instead of going back and tweaking that list to reflect that, I’ve decided I’ll just name the games here, add blurbs, and mention in what tiers they would have landed.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Developer MachineGames could have taken the Indiana Jones license and made a mediocre Uncharted knockoff, as some may have expected when Bethesda announced the project several years ago. Thankfully, the fine folks behind the excellent Wolfenstein reboot took this opportunity to really delve into what exactly makes the adventurous archaeologist interesting (as well as what makes the films so entertaining).
There’s hardly any running-and-gunning in Great Circle, just like there are very few actual shootouts in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Instead, the player inhabits the mind of a moderately athletic and wildly curious man as he uses stealth and cunning to make his way through treacherous environs, all littered with Nazi and fascist scum. You carefully search for hidden artifacts within ancient structures all while avoiding (or, in some cases, bludgeoning) the most evil individuals alive, who only seek these artifacts for the most nefarious of purposes.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle obviously sings as a playable movie, with gorgeous world design and phenomenal voice acting (including Troy Baker doing a spot-on Harrison Ford impression). But what really makes it stand out is how beautifully it gamifies not just the action of the films, but also the slower, smaller moments. Tons of games give you chances to fight the way Indy does; few give you the opportunity to feel fear, excitement, amazement, pain, and wonder exactly the way he does.
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
Tier: Hall of Curtis Granderson. (This game probably would have been HOCG GOTY, to be honest. Sorry to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.)
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
The Dragon Quest franchise means a lot to me, even as someone who didn’t grow up with it. I’ve obviously written about the loss of a close friend, Alex Toy, who loved the series and always talked about how I should give it more of a chance, and how playing these games gives me a pathway to feel like I’m still communicating with him from the beyond. But playing the recent HD-2D refresh of the 1988 classic has created a brand-new attachment for me, one that allows me to understand myself better, as well as my relationship to my fallen friend.
Much like the other games in the franchise, DQIII is largely unconcerned with presenting a deep or thematically complex narrative. You just go out in the world with your team of companions in search of keys, and then orbs, and then… whatever else. The actual plot doesn’t matter: The game just wants you to travel the earth, seeing wonderful places and meeting eccentric people. In a sense, Dragon Quest III isn’t about playing through a particular story; it’s about going on a particularly treacherous road trip with your buds, one strewn with fierce challenges and moments of serenity alike. It’s about knowing you can get through any challenges with the right people by your side, even people who aren’t really there.
In the hero’s quest to find his long-lost father, Ortega, he learns about the man’s past heroics from villagers all across the globe, following bravely in his footsteps all the way. As I watch every flashback cutscene about Ortega’s previous conversations and experiences with others and tread the grounds upon which he stood, I feel that connection to him, even if my character was just a child when he left. When I courageously take down horrid monsters in pursuit of whatever MacGuffins I need to progress through the story, I feel that connection to him. And when I simply talk to people who tell me I vaguely look like a fierce hero of old, I feel that connection once more. Much like when I played Dragon Quest VIII last year, it’s almost as if I’m still maintaining that connection to Alex by traveling through virtual lands he knew so well. It’s a joy to feel that again.
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Tier: Could Be GOTY In Any Year. (I’m not sure if it would be my GOTY for 2024, but it’s a lot closer to that than I expected it to be.)
LIGHTNING ROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Since I didn’t actually complete my expected backlog for 2024, I won’t write a full top 10 list for backlog games. Here, however, is a quick top five best backlog games I played last year:
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
- Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
- Jusant
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- I played a decent amount of Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics over the holidays, and it’s staggering to me just how smooth, intuitive, and inviting these fighters really are. Every single one is still a blast to play, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 honestly might be a top five Capcom game of all time. It also helps that there are casual control options for guys like me who love these games but SUCK at them.
- The arcade port of Capcom’s The Punisher was also included in the collection, and you know what? It’s one of the best arcade beat ‘em ups I’ve ever played. It’s visually striking for its time, with comic-like “BAM!” and “KRAK!” animations popping up at all times, and has a surprisingly deep combat suite. Also, fun fact: The Punisher was the very first Marvel Comics game made by Capcom, so it’s a cool history lesson as well!
- Jason Schreier’s latest book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, has been a fascinating read so far (I still have about 50 pages or so as of the time of writing), but what sticks out to me the most is that it seems basically impossible to match the interests of a “gamer-focused” studio with the expectations of a publicly traded corporate behemoth. Many of the failures of Blizzard over the past decade make a lot more sense now.
- I’m sick of all the leaks and rumors: Just show us the Switch 2 now, Nintendo! We all know you want to! Just do it! COME OOOOOONNNNNN!!!!!
- Speaking of Nintendo, last month’s addition of Tetris DX for Game Boy Color to Nintendo Switch Online was a surprisingly welcome one. The game isn’t just Tetris with color; it uses the newly available color options to keep the player engaged, including changing the palette after the player reaches higher levels and even displaying various animated cutscenes after the player gets a Game Over. It’s a good example of how sometimes small visual change-ups to familiar games can make a noticeable difference (well, at least they could in the ’90s).
- I’ve been steadily a part of the #365Games challenge on Bluesky this year, where I’m posting every day about a game that has been meaningful to me in some capacity. I started off with some obvious favorites, but I’ve found it’s much more fun to list games I normally don’t talk about that way, like QWOP. Hopefully I keep this up for the rest of 2025!
- My latest non-gaming obsession, for the first time ever, is a CBS sitcom. Ghosts, a U.S. remake of a U.K. series, depicts a young couple inheriting an old mansion in New York’s Hudson Valley that happens to be populated with the spirits of people who have died on the property over the centuries. One of the new homeowners survives a near-death experience and gains the ability to see and communicate with the ghosts, and of course hilarity ensues. What I appreciate most about Ghosts is not necessarily that it’s the funniest television show out there right now; it’s that it manages to present likeable characters that you root for, but never loses sight of its larger purpose to be funny. Yes, you have emotional moments and exchanges, but they’re ALWAYS punctuated by humor, often at the expense of the ghosts themselves (a lot of bits about the goofy ways they died, for example). Anyway, go watch Ghosts. You’ll probably have a good time.
