I did 52 in a year several years ago and in retrospect it was an absolute slog towards the end. 12 in a year is much more doable and will definitely drive me less mental!
Ok, let's start out!
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1)
Warhammer Space Marine 1. Damn good game, loved the 360 era design and the story was surprisingly compelling.
Started just before Christmas and finished the first couple of days of the new year. A perfect 7-8 hour campaign.
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2)
The Simpsons - Hit and Run (9/1/25)
Definite case of rose tinted spectacles. Played this years ago on GameCube and somehow remembered it as being good, its not.
Ultra frustrating and unfair fail states on missions. Insanely frustrating AI behaviour. No mission variety.
Thank god for save states on Dolphin. I have no idea how I finished this game all those years ago without them.
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3)
BioShock Remastered (23/1/25)
Wanted to see how well Winlator works on my Odin 2 so figured I'd give an old favourite another spin. Well, the game is still excellent. Story and atmosphere are just as compelling as the first time and the game is fun as hell too.
As an aside, Winlator works Impressively well. I was hitting 60fps most of the time at 720p medium with slight dips into the 50s here and there. x86 emulation on android looks like its making big strides and it bodes very well for the future
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4)
Mafia Definitive Edition (11/2/25)
Excellent game, really liked it. Great story and a very atmospheric "open" world. I say that in that it's limited in its scope for a free roam type of game. And this is a great benefit. It's like a tightly scripted single player campaign that just happens to have an open world backdrop. Fun missions, memorable characters. Not ground breaking these days but probably the best of its kind I've played for a long time.
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5)
Huntdown (23/2/25)
A lot of fun, great steam deck game. Pixelart shooters are an easy yes for me. This has a cool look and very tight gameplay. Had to play it on easy though, my old man reflexes couldnt get anywhere on any difficulty above that!
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6)
BioShock 2 (2/3/25)
Underrated. Particularly Minerva's Den. Gameplay was just as good as #1, story less so but still a great entry.
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7)
Split Fiction (23/3/25)
Truly excellent. Played local co-op with my 12 year old daughter and we really enjoyed it. Story is the weakest aspect but it's packed with great ideas and its genuinely fun. Ending sequence is right up there with the very best.
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8)
Doom (2016) (25/4/25)
Still a truly brilliant game. Perfect length, wonderful gameplay that teaches you little by little until you're an absolute whirlwind of violence by the end. On balance I think I prefer this to Eternal, which I didn't prior to this replay of the original. It's just that bit more focused. As an aside, why cant more people use idTech? This engine is incredible. Played on Steamdeck with high settings and it hardly ever drops a frame below 60.
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9)
Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time (28/4/25)
It pretty much holds up even after all these years. First finished it on the original Xbox. Combat sucks, camera is irritating at times but the puzzles and platforming at the core of the game are still great fun. Recommended.
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10)
Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones (11/5/25)
I was going to replay the whole trilogy but after an hour with Warrior Within I couldn't do it. That "rawk" music and emo Prince was too much to take. So I skipped and went to this. Its....fine. Similar to the original but not as good or as focused in most respects. The combat is better for sure but otherwise its easy enough to see why the series ended here and went off in a new (and worse) direction. Really dark environments in places made some sections more difficult than they should've been.
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11)
Despelote (12/5/25)
A cool and short walking sim about football set in Ecuador. Great atmosphere and interesting graphical style. Finished in under 2 hours but it made a really good impression.
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12) Super Mario Odyssey (19/5/25)
For the first few hours its pretty fun. Loads of simple collectables and familiar mechanics. But after a while I noticed something that was very "off" about this. I can't remember ever playing a Mario game that felt so bland. Its well made for sure but theres so little personality or really interesting hook to it. Not to mention how unbelievably easy it is. I'm not saying it sucks, but I remember seeing the 9/10 reviews when it came out and IMO its not anywhere near that. Decent enough, not great.
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And with that I got my twelve! Gonna keep going in this thread though. It's been a great motivator for me to play consistently this year.
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13)
Star Fox 64 (26/5/25)
Haven't played this since I was a kid and was a very proud (if misinformed
) n64 owner. But I saw that there was an update to the PC Starship port and figured it'd be a great game to try on the Deck. It's short and sweet just like always but the 16:10 aspect ratio and perfect 60fps elevate it a huge amount from its origins. Just good fun start to finish.
I'll try to finish 2 games in February. It works too right ? 