2024 Year-end Roundup

Going over all the main articles of 2024

2024 was quite the year. We were served heaping spoonfuls of wet, gray slop and I barely played anything that released that year. We were invaded by aliens, had 300 elections across the globe and we witnessed Concord. An alright year.

Today I’ll be looking at what I reviewed in 2024. Not what I played, but what I covered here on Load Last Save. I’ll be giving a few more thoughts on each game, and a few comments on if my opinion of it has changed or not. I will also highlight my favorite and least favorite things. There’s also going to be some stats! How exciting! I will be focusing on the main articles and skipping demo dives.

Helldivers 2

The first thing ever reviewed on this site! Helldivers 2 was my Game of the Year for 2024, and it was also one of the few things from that year that I actually played when it released. I still like it, and still recommend it, even with all the live-service nonsense it brings with it.

Pizza Tower

My pick for Game of The Year 2023. I stand by everything in the review and think everyone should play it. It’s a ton of fun and great to play at any skill level.

3 Fighting games perfect for beginners

Jumping on the “how to get into fighting games” discourse, which I still think is bunk. You don’t need a place to start with fighting games, just play whatever. The picks I had for this list are alright, but I’d swap out Strive for something else. Strive has gone from a simplified version of Guilty Gear to a convoluted mess where you can kill anyone in two interactions. It’s horrible for beginners, but it wasn’t so bad back when I wrote the article. I don’t recommend Tekken 8. Not for beginners, but for anyone. It has nothing to do with the post, I just hate Tekken 8.

I liked the little framing device with Roger in the library teaching a random zoomer to play fighting games. It’s a little creative writing exercise that encapsulates my frustrations with people on Twitter and their ability to be incorrect all the time. The little joke about misusing apostrophes comes from the fact that I’ve seen way too many people pluralizing nouns with apostrophes. It’s gotten to the point where some have started using them before any S, like in the word despicable, they might throw it in to make de’spicable. I’m exaggerating, of course, but it will happen.

The illustration at the beginning of that article is the first time I ever drew Roger.

Mordheim: City of the Damned

The first negative review ever published on Load Last Save. I stand by it, since the review was my third attempt at liking the game, and I didn’t. It’s just not fun. Was I too hard on it? No. Not hard enough.

Akane

A nice single-screen arcade game. Very simple, but well thought out.

Street Fighter 6 Season 1 Tier List

Everyone loves tier lists. I know I do. It’s an okay assessment, but the information in it is outdated, as is expected. Any time you make content for a live service game it becomes outdated in a few weeks. This is good for keeping the content mill going, but bad if you want anything with longevity.

This was before Akuma and all that. I put Rashid in A tier and now he’s a menace, and Luke was made mortal again. I haven’t played much Street Fighter 6 after that article. I put my “All characters to diamond” challenge on hold while I worked on other stuff, but I will go back to the grind and come up with another tier list for season 2. Virtua Fighter 5 is coming to PC soon, so that might also prevent me from playing Street Fighter.

I really like the horrific Luke and Ken I drew for the opening image. Luke’s tiny, ghoul-like face always gets me to exhale out of my nose. His dog tag says “penis” on it because I’m a child.

5 Classic Arcade Games Remade for the PS1

Speaking of being a child, these were mostly games I played as a child. This was one of the first articles I ever wrote for the site, even if it’s this far down on the list. I like this article, but I don’t think I’d make another one like this since it was a bit tedious to make. My favorite part of the whole thing was the unhinged rant about Robotron X at the end. That game gave me a migraine and an insatiable urge to kill.

I make a reference to Nex Machina in that review. It’s a good game, and I have been trying to write a review for it since I wrote the one about PS1 games, and I still haven’t finished it. If you see it sometime in the future, know it’s my white whale.

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

The most disappointing game I reviewed all year. I really wanted to like it. It’s a janky, arcadey, gameplay-focused game with an extremely edgy presentation. I was 100% ready for a difficult, action-packed journey about kicking ass and taking names. What I found was a gutter where the love of entertainment meets the most boring enemies ever put to code. I went back and played it after the review and it was just as bad. A wet, soggy blob of nothing. The best part of the review was the use of the word Obnubilate.

This one’s an especially sore spot for me since The Electric Underground, a great YouTuber who focuses on action/arcade games, recommended it. I am sorry to say that I disagree with his assessment of the game. Sure, you can maintain a full link combo through the stage like you would in Dodonpachi, but the difference here is that it’s a lot harder to keep a full chain in Dodonpachi. The timer is very strict and it requires advanced knowledge of the level and enemy spawns. You have to time things to get them to chain. In Gungrave, you just mash through anything in the environment. There’s no real difference between shooting an inanimate object and an enemy since the enemies are barely sentient to begin with.

I’m rambling about Gungrave again. I’d better stop before the neighbors complain.

The Godhand Manifesto

My first long, schizo review and the one that sent me down the PS2 beat-’em-up rabbit hole. I had been a Godhand enjoyer for a while now, but I never thought about reviewing it, since anything that can be said about it has been said already, but I decided to take a crack at it and declare my love for it. It was also an excuse to replay it and dunk on IGN. After posting the review, I played it some more and got better and even thought of making an updated review with all I’ve learned, but I’m satisfied with the review. Easily one of the best PS2 games, and one of the best action games ever. Which is saying a lot since Devil May Cry 3 is right there alongside it.

I should review DMC3 at some point, but I think it would be another 10,000 word behemoth.

Steam Next Fest Summer 2024 Wrap Up

I spent that entire week playing and reviewing demos while also working on regular reviews. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. It was a bit much. Here is where I first played KILL KNIGHT, which is a fantastic game that you should play.

The Final Fight: Streetwise Condemnation

The second in the trilogy of these reviews. When I was researching God Hand’s infamous 3/10 review, I saw Final Fight: Streetwise mentioned. I remember hearing about it back in the day. It’s notorious for being a complete stinker of a game, but I had never played it myself. I gave it a try just to see if it had any redeeming value, and it did not. It was somehow worse than what I was expecting. It was so bad that I had to review it.

I didn’t finish the game, because it was so boring, but I wish I had, since things go off-the-rails near the end. I had gotten to the first zombie mutant fight (which was a slog) and stopped there. I had seen enough. Thing is, I saw some gameplay of it later on and the final bosses are a fever dream. Apparently the monsters are the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and you fight them and the entire game becomes a weird Resident Evil nightmare. The gameplay is still the same, so my analysis of its mechanics still stands. It’s one of the worst things I played in 2024, and probably one of the worst things I’ve ever played period.

The Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance Apology

Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance sucks. It’s a terrible beat-’em-up, it feels weird to play and it looks about as pretty as a turd on a land mine. The only reason I said anything positive about it was its one-on-one fighting sections where you play a dollar store version of Virtua Fighter. Its open world River City Ransom style hub world is fun, too, along with its party system. It’s a shame that it’s so full of jank. A troubled game. Way better than Final Fight: Streetwise, but that’s not a high bar.

To any indie devs out there: please remake this game, or get heavily inspired by it.

Katamari Damacy REROLL

An excellent palate cleanser after subjecting myself to such horrors. A fantastic game that’s always a good time. I had to cut through the game’s cloying sweetness by taking unnecessary jabs at VG Cats, of all things. An old webcomic that no one, other than me, has thought about in the last 10 years. I liked analyzing the game’s graphics and use of color. It uses a lot more neutral and desaturated colors than one would think, since the game’s all about being colorful, but they do that through mindful use of specific saturated tones. It’s very nice.

5 EPIC Snacks for RADICAL Gamers

A full-on shitpost. Also one of the first things I ever wrote for the site. I kept it in my back pocket in case I needed something on a slow week. I never posted it because it felt kind of dumb, but I embraced the stupidity and posted it anyways. I channeled douchebag gamer-bro culture from the 2000’s for this one.

I like it. It’s dumb as hell, but that’s its charm. I want to write more complete nonsense like that, but I haven’t found the right subject. I grew up watching G4 and was neck-deep in that kind of stuff, so it comes natural.

The opening image is a personal favorite of mine. I used a picture of Ainsley Harriot for the pose reference. The idea of pouring Monster onto Doritos sat on top of a Gamecube is hilarious to me for some reason. I also like Roger’s absolutely disgusting douche expression.

Brown Harvest: The Urban Reign Review

After finishing the impromptu trilogy started by Godhand, I thought I was done with those games. Then I find out about Urban Reign, and I felt I had to review it out of tradition. I gave it a shot and found it annoying to play. When I went to review it, I got hit with a surge of bordedom; I’d already written two of these reviews. I needed something to keep me entertained, so I wrote the whole thing as a detective story with some loose references to the works of Dashiell Hammett. No one was going to get it, but A: no one reads this and B: I don’t care. I had a lot of fun writing this mess down. More than I can say for the game (which sucks). Probably my favorite article of 2024 and my most self-indulgent.

Motion Inputs Are Not Holding You Back

Taking on another topic within The Discourse. Motion inputs are not that bad, stop complaining. I like the little drawing of Roger dressed as Geese Howard. Everyone I showed it to managed to get the meaning behind it, which made me happy.

All 72 Songs from the Need for Speed: Unbound Soundtrack Reviewed

After some time has passed, I have grown to hate the soundtrack even more. I haven’t listened to it again, because I’m not a masochist, but I have played NFS: Unbound since then and every time I see any of the songs’ titles I get a flashback to them and instantly get angry. I would go back and subtract two points from every song there.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

Another disappointment. Everyone made this game out to be some sort of underrated classic, and the game itself tries to be an arcadey experience, but it’s not. It’s just another brown and grey seventh generation shooter. Pure slop. I don’t care if you like it. I don’t.

Crystal Breaker and Shockwave Trigger

Demo Dive for a Wednesday article. I don’t remember why I did that. Maybe I had something else planned and it was delayed or something. I liked Crystal Breaker, was disappointed by Shockwave Triggers, which is a shame since I wanted to like both. The creator of Shockwave Trigger saw the review, but I don’t know if they read it, and that made me feel bad because I was mean to the game and they worked hard on it, but what I played in the demo wasn’t great.

2XKO Playtest Impressions

2XKO (pronounced Two-Ecks-Kay-Oh) is the upcoming League of Legends fighting game. I got a chance to try it out and found it lacking. It’s a degenerate tag fighter with no real neutral, boring special moves and autocombos. It comes with spyware, too!

John Woo Presents: Stranglehold

A rare positive review after slandering so many games. I wanted to prove I don’t hate every single shooter from the PS3/360 era, so I reviewed one I like. It’s a fun game.

Deadlock Pre-Release Impressions

I liked Deadlock. A lot. When I wrote that review I had been playing multiple matches a day, on a daily basis. I played it a lot more after the review, but haven’t in the past few weeks as of writing this. It’s a great game, and I still recommend it, but I’ve been distracted with other things.

I like the illustration. I threw it together at the last minute and it came out a lot better than I thought it would. Why did I leave it for the last minute? Because I was distracted playing Deadlock.

Shadow of the Ninja- Reborn

An excellent game proving that remakes aren’t always awful. One of the few games from 2024 that I played in 2024. Well worth the $20 asking price.

Special Report: Slay the Spire

I love Slay the Spire, and so does everyone else. I didn’t want to do a regular review of it, so I made a dumb little narrative and framed it like a report. Why? Because it’s fun. Can’t wait for Slay the Spire 2 to slay the rest of my free time when it comes out.

Final Vendetta

A great beat-’em-up. I went on about how the game is good but needed to find its own flair, and I stand by that. I played a lot more Final Fight after the review and the resemblances between the two are pretty uncanny. Final Vendetta gets kind of blatant with its “inspiration”, but like I mentioned, it doesn’t go far enough into kooky territory. You won’t be fighting in a factory or going up against a guy who throws grenades. It’s still a good game and I recommend it.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

This game sucks. I hated it back in 2009, I hate it now and I will hate it forever. It’s tedious and poorly designed. It’s not the worst game I reviewed in 2024 thanks to Streetwise.

Why I don’t use scores

The original draft for this article was a lot meaner than the one published.

The header image for it is the best I’ve made for the site up to now. Illustration of the year 2024. Raising the bar of quality up to where I can’t reach it again.

Steam Next Fest October 2024 Roundup

This was a lot less tedious than doing the summer Next Fest. It was even a little fun.

Downhill Domination

I just wanted an excuse to play Downhill Domination again. It’s a great game.

Jumping Flash! 1 and 2

I got distracted playing Downhill Domination and didn’t have anything to review, so I decided “Hey, why don’t I check out Jumping Flash?”. Then I thought “What if I review two games in one day?” and it was a terrible idea. I speedran both games in one day and wrote the article. I recommend both games, but I don’t recommend doing what I did.

The illustration is nice. Kiwi head Roger is cute but kinda cursed.

In Defense of Jank: 3 Outdated Mechanics that Still Work

The first draft for this one had a really long tangent about Bioshock. When I read it the next day I excised the whole thing and the article became 80% shorter.

The mummy’s face in the illustration was fun to draw. Referenced from that one meme of the guy waking up. A lot of thumbnails have meme references in them because I’m terminally online.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Why did I review the second game in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy? Because I got it in a Humble Bundle years ago and never played it. It came packaged along with a game I actually wanted. I never touched it until I did the review, because I thought I wouldn’t like it, and lo and behold, I didn’t. The first of my “too long” articles.

Adults always tell kids that videogames are a waste of time. They are, but at least you’re having fun while doing it. Rise of the Tomb Raider feels like a waste of time.

The original illustration for this one was supposed to be Lara Croft in the Squidward Killing Machine but it was taking forever to draw and it looked awful so I went with Roger with pointy boobs as suggested by a friend of mine. I like this one more.

Wanted: Dead

This is a fun game. I recommend it. It’s jank but loveable and the core combat is nice. I forgot to mention it in the review, but this game needs a chapter select.

8 JRPGs for Christmas

A tradition I started years ago where I play a JRPG during Christmas. I did it to see if I liked JRPGs, since I never played them, and now I have found out I don’t.

I like the illustration featuring bishi Roger as Cloud, even if I didn’t play or mention FF7 in the article. To me Cloud and his massive sword are both synonymous with JRPGs. I drew the Xenogears pendant. I did mention Xenogears. Extensively. With hatred. A lot of hatred.

This is the second article that uses the word “decroded”. It’s a great word, even if it’s not real. It should be in the dictionary. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.

Game Awards 2024 Predictions

Predicting the Game Awards. The point of this article was to make something easy to write while I relaxed during Christmas, but it ended up being the longest article of 2024 at 8,651 words. Absolute Hell.

5 Games to prepare you for the upcoming alien invasion

Another shitpost. One of the first articles I wrote for the site but I didn’t publish it because my standards had changed.

The illustration is three alien soyjaks. Why? Because.

A Load Last Save Christmas

It’s Christmas and every content creator is obligated to do something festive. It has to involve Santa and it has to parody a beloved Christmas special.

The drawings here are some of my favorite. The last one with Roger in his massive kicks is very cozy. There’s no real reason for that one image that’s a reference to Late Registration’s cover. I just thought it would be funny. I still haven’t decided if it is.

Conclusion

I recommend Load Last Save in 2024. All the main Wednesday articles, at least. 15 positive articles, 5 neutral and 12 negative. A pretty even spread. 151,304 words. Not bad for the first year.

There were 8 meme references in the illustrations. Can you find all of them?

Technically not a full year, since it started in April. Thanks to everyone for reading these nasty little screeds. Look forward to more reviews, rage, nonsense and shitposts in 2025.