r/Games • u/Andynath • 3d ago

Digital Foundry Games of 2024: The John Linneman Collection!

https://youtu.be/VOBmvk-VIS8?feature=shared
365 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

91 comments sorted by

180

u/Cord_Cutter_VR 2d ago

His list:

  • Number 11 - Devil Blade Reboot
  • Number 10 - Minishoot' Adventures
  • Number 9 - Stellar Blade
  • Number 8 - Granblue Fantasy: Relink
  • Number 7 - AntonBlast
  • Number 6 - Parking Garage Rally Circuit
  • Number 5 - Tekken 8
  • Number 4 - Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • Number 3 - Silent Hill 2
  • Number 2 - Penny's Big Breakaway
  • Number 1 - Astro Bot

37

u/Coolman_Rosso 2d ago

Glad to see Devil Blade Reboot on here. Such a fantastic OST

2

u/ExplodingFistz 2d ago

Goated soundtrack for sure

2

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Justhe3guy 2d ago

May not have had time to play it yet

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u/Dr_Popodopolus 2d ago

You are correct, i listened to the direct earlier today, i believe he hasnt started Metaphor and is part way through Erdtree

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u/smileysmiley123 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'm honestly still surprised at Silent Hill 2 being so high on so many lists.

Playing it without the nostalgia goggles:

It's a very good game. The character facial animations are the best in video game history (only rivalled by Callisto Protocol which falls short in the micro-expressions).

That said (again, without nostalgia goggles), removing the vast amount of theory-crafting this game has experienced for its narrative:

The story is fine. Full-stop. The player would not piece together everything the game is throwing at you for the narrative to make sense. The guilt, the sexual obsessions, the voyeurism of various holes in the story, the various (seemingly) unrelated characters you interact with.. they all contribute to a narrative that is compelling, but inaccessible.

The biggest issues the game has are (1) the puzzles, (2) the level design, and (3) the dialogue.

1 - Silent Hill 2 (2001) is from a time, and Japan, that had a motif with their puzzle games that implemented nonsensical logic to their riddles. The collection of an assortment of items to input into a door/cabinet/lockbox/etc. was a staple of this genre (Resident Evil was another large proponent of this "puzzle" method).

While these satisfy the basic criteria of "puzzle", they do not feel satisfying to complete. The player can move past looking for a real-world logic subset to solve a puzzle when presented with parameters that the game gives to them. Silent Hill 2 (remake) does not follow any sort of logic. These are not puzzles, these are trial-and-error exercises.

This is mostly to give the game more screen time and "pad-out" the levels, by-way of forcing the player to circle back to certain locations, up to 4 times to ensure the whole area is explored and completed.

Bloober should have taken far more relevant, and creative liberties with the puzzles in this game.

2 - The level design is not as interconnected as it wants to present itself.

The vast majority of the areas that are enabled to be explored, in-the-moment, are gated by these critical, story-related items. This gives the illusion of Silent Hill 2 (Remake) being a (pseudo) Open-World game. There's an indication in most levels you enter where you are presented with several directions (usually doorways/hallways, sometime streets) that visually tell the player, "Here are 3+ directions for you to go in. Try them all."

Most players will understand that this is not the case. You will constantly be running into locked doors just to check that box off on your map, and continue on your way until you hit the next plot beat. The extra space is exclusively for supplies.

Silent Hill 2 (Remake) is not advertised as such, nor are returning players from the original expecting this, but the initial, visual level design gives the players the direction of, "Go explore!" without setting the limits at the start.

This is the lesser point of why this game should not be rated as high as it is. The level design is fine, at best, and is prefaced by dialogue only a handful of times, and none of it is impactful.

3 -This is a difficult point to reconcile, as the majority of the dialogue in the remake is, objectively, the same, with unbelievable delivery from the voice actors (I agree with the Voice Acting Nominations), except the written dialogue is almost serviceable, at-best.

James is almost a non-character until the end of the game (and depending on the ending you can get a 180 switch with his personality). He doesn't question anything that's going on, he doesn't have any qualms about what he's seeing, doesn't acknowledge any weapons he gets, etc. He's a flat character that is just experiencing a tangential plot as it progresses.

The rest of the cast, while giving stellar performances, are honestly seen as extensions of James' mind/delusions (of what the town is projecting). I want to emphasize that a new player would not understand that some of these characters may be experiencing the town of Silent Hill in their own way, because the game does not lay any narrative bread crumbs that it might be the case.

But dialogue, typically, requires at least 1 character. James barely speaks to himself, when he does it's not anything that furthers the plot, or fleshes out his character. When he does speak to another character it feels wooden, and this is where Bloober should have taken more creative liberties.

This narrative ends up feeling like they wanted to raise more questions than they answered, without answering anything other than the initial, "Why is James here?"

The above is not, in itself, an issue with storytelling. Ambiguity is an integral part of any mystery, the majority of horror, and any thriller.

Silent Hill 2 (2001) was made during a time where the constraints of video game development forced developers to overcome the shortcomings of memory and hardware via writing and technical loopholes.

Resident Evil 4 (Remake) is the gold standard for remakes of beloved games. It was able to revamp the story, level design, gameplay, and overall narrative to become a truly unique experience, while still being faithful to its inspiration.

Silent Hill 2 (Remake) does not deserve the same level of appreciation. It's a very good game, but it's not its own thing.

7

u/BansheeThief 1d ago

Holy shit, this was a really well thought out critique and I really enjoyed the points made even if I may have slightly disagreed with them. I'm shocked you've been downvoted so heavily.

I thought you nailed the point about the puzzles. I was excited to play through this game since I never played the originals but I just couldn't stick with it despite spending 10-15hrs playing it. I couldn't point to what it was until I read your point about the puzzle design and how it just didn't work for me. I'm not a fan of back tracking and try to clear everything out when I first visit but I spent over an hour trying to solve a puzzle until I looked up a guide and realized I missed a random required item across the city.

I hope the downvotes don't dissuade you from sharing your thoughts again since I really appreciated them.

3

u/smileysmiley123 1d ago

Eh, the downvotes don't really faze me, as most are reactionary and people are welcome to their own opinions.

I was hoping I was clear that the Silent Hill 2 remake is a good game, but felt that Bloober was taking a more cautionary approach that was detrimental to several aspects of the game.

Their next game, which I believe is an original IP, I'm hoping doesn't have these issues, as more creative freedom is on the table, along with a good chunk of financial leeway with the success of Silent Hill 2.

I played through the game, overall had a great time and loved the atmosphere they were able to pin down, but there are very few GotY contenders that deserve to be free from criticism.

6

u/ImMufasa 2d ago

Better facial animations than last of us 2? I haven't played it yet but have it installed.

1

u/smileysmiley123 18h ago

Last of Us 2 had some great animations, in terms of emoting expressiveness. I think its strength lies mostly in the Mo-cap of the characters' bodies.

This Silent Hill 2 Remake has more subtlety with micro-expressions, as there are far more moments in dialogue scenes where neither character is saying anything but is still getting some point or emotion across to the player.

Both great games for realistic-presenting characters.

1

u/gnocchiGuili 18h ago

Great read ! Thanks for this.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/PeaWordly4381 2d ago

"I can't understand the love for the game I haven't even played".

21

u/dunn000 2d ago

Welcome to the internet. I didn’t like theme music so obviously game must not be good.

-27

u/OnscreenLoki 2d ago

Welcome to the internet: Criticizing people's impressions of something they acknowledge they need to get more information on before they judge it properly.

26

u/dunn000 2d ago

Ever thought not sharing an opinion is better than sharing an uninformed one for no reason? It’s a possibility.

13

u/nikelaos117 2d ago

It's definitely you gotta play it to understand it kind of game.

This and the ps5 launch title are such awesome games.

5

u/he-tried-his-best 2d ago

It’s basically a Sony team finally understanding how Nintendo makes Mario. It’s great fun.

-14

u/Defaalt 1d ago

No Balatro in this list is a pure insult to the gaming industry.

27

u/gilben 2d ago

Glad to see Parking Garage Rally Circuit get some love! Game is basically "Mario Kart but you're constantly drift boosting" and as was mentioned in the video the soundtrack absolutely SLAPS. Wish there were even more vocal tracks, because what's there feels like a happy ska band anime intro or Sonic Adventure theme.

"A finish line means nothing when you're...BUILT. FOR. SPEED!"

6

u/Sloshy42 2d ago

I was maybe mid way through the game and I finally realized exactly how the mini turbos would allow you to affect your top speed. If you are just constantly chaining boosts then your top speed just keeps getting higher and higher and higher until you stop. Once you realize that you can get some absolutely insane times on the levels, but also, It is very easy to accidentally launch yourself out of bounds or something because you are going so fast. At that point it becomes a game of actually monitoring your speed so that you're not going too fast on certain corners. For example if you're going too fast on the Chicago stage, you will hit the ceiling on the other end of your jumps and seriously lose time.

Absolutely phenomenal game. It's just so freaking fun.

9

u/haysus25 1d ago

Indiana Jones is actually insane. It's like playing a movie that happens to be better than the movies.

4

u/StreetToughLoser858 1d ago

Once I remembered how trying to collect everything has soured a few games for me in the past, I started to enjoy the game a lot more.

My biggest gripe with the game is that it doesn't save the photos I take with the camera. I still like to roleplay and take pictures of relics etc that look interesting. Also done some street photography.

78

u/SageWaterDragon 3d ago

I'm always happy to see John's GOTY lists - his taste maps on to mine really well, so whenever he recommends something I know that, if nothing else, I'll have a good time with it. I've been meaning to play Penny's Big Breakaway for a while, but this gave me the kick I needed to buy it. That Parking Garage Rally game also seems like a ton of fun.

It's also really nice to see Granblue Fantasy: Relink on this list. It's a phenomenal game that got really overlooked this year - I was sad to see that it didn't get nominated for any awards at any of the shows I've followed. It's great! It's clearly a labor of love from a talented team, and it's positively gorgeous.

13

u/TheDrewDude 2d ago

Just one piece of advice on Penny. Take time to learn and get good with the mechanics. It’s a bit of a learning curve, and I hear people who get frustrated that the momentum in this game doesn’t come easier. I get it, but once it clicks it becomes extremely satisfying. Definitely among my favorite games of the year.

33

u/Scizzoman 2d ago

Yeah, somehow out of all the end-of-year top 10s his always ends up being the most interesting to me personally.

He tends to be pretty gameplay-focused, clearly likes a lot of "old school" genres like arcade games, racing games, platformers, and JRPGs, and doesn't shy away from giving awards to niche indie/AA games. So his picks tend to be pretty unique, and give flowers to games that don't get a lot of play in these types of lists.

There's always some fun JRPG that you wouldn't expect to win awards (Granblue Relink this year, last year I think he included the JP release of Ys X), and some indie game I've never heard of that ends up on my wishlist (Parking Garage Rally).

14

u/KnightHart00 2d ago

Yeah I think he's one of the only individuals next to Gene Park from the Washington Post that really rates or even plays some of these Japanese titles, especially JRPGs. The landscape has changed as of late for stuff like Yakuza/Like a Dragon, but seeing him put up Ys and Granblue ReLink was a surprise. I also know John is a fan of the Trails series as well, which is seeing an unfathomable three new releases in 2025 in the West.

I always check out the games he puts on his lists. Literally have Parking Garage Rally in my Steam cart right now.

2

u/hhkk47 2d ago

And he almost always has games in his list that I had absolutely no idea about. I've never heard about Devil Blade Reboot or Minishoot Adventures before seeing this video, and now I'm seriously considering buying both.

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u/Ordinal43NotFound 2d ago

Just bought Granblue Relink and Parking Garage Rally.

Both look really dope.

5

u/DatBoiEBB 2d ago

It’s weird because during the DF Direct Weekly’s I find him so abrasive, contrarian, and condescending but when he’s actually giving praise like in this video I find myself agreeing with him a lot.

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u/srjnp 1d ago edited 1d ago

wish more people in games media just gave their actual favorite games of the year like this instead of trying to be all objective or safe and picking the same games from every award show.

8

u/CanipaEffect 2d ago

Love seeing Granblue turning up on peoples' lists. A real gem of a game that's constantly punching above its weight

2

u/Takazura 2d ago

With how it didn't seem to even get nominees at any of the awards show, I'm just happy to see it making it into these various "top X games of the year" lists. Hoping there is either a sequel or an expansion in the works, because there is so much potential there.

1

u/Ordinal43NotFound 2d ago

Thankfully it did pretty well sales-wise so I don't think Cygames should worry about awards.

3

u/Brainwheeze 1d ago

This is such an interesting collection of games. I like John's videos because you can tell his taste in games is quite varied. Thanks to that I've ended up learning about some pretty cool games that I otherwise would have never noticed.

3

u/GensouEU 2d ago

John has some awesome, varied picks in this as usual.

It's nice to see more love for Stellar Blade, it's genuinely one of the best action games I've played and probably my favourite non-FromSoft "one of those". I honestly believe the game gets unfairly judged because of the , well ... ShiftUp aesthetics, otherwise I thought it was one of the best games in the genre in recent years. Wukong obviously has the incredibly cool aethetic and lore from Journey to the West but as a game SB completely eats it's lunch imo. Going from Wukong to this was like I left behind a decade of jank that was more a thing of action games in the past.

And I sometimes feel like I'm taking crazy pills regarding Astro compared to anyone else. I don't want to knock the game too hard because it was still one of my favourite games this year but when John said

"nearly every stage has a fresh new idea or gimmick"

I pretty much had the opposite reaction. The "tribute" levels definitely had me surprised and deserve the love and there is a decent amount of variety but the regular levels repeated mechanics way, way faster than I ever expected, especially after the praise the game has been getting. Like within the first few hours I already played a copy of the "spooky" tileset level where you throw lightbulbs and I thought especially in the last thrid or so of regular levels you really felt that they ran out of new ideas. Like compare the individuality of each level in Astro with something like Mario Wonder, that's a game where I would genuinely say "nearly every stage has a fresh new idea or gimmick", but not Astro.

I also feel like I've read the phrase "it had the perfect length" pretty often, which if I'm being honest more sounds like cope for "I was getting sick of that by the end" which isn't something I heard before in platformers with genuinely fun movement mechanics. Even with the powerups a movement toolset of just jump and hover isn't nearly enough to be interesting longterm especially now where people are used to having triple jump, long jumps, wall jumps, cappy jumps, etc...

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u/TheSecondEikonOfFire 2d ago

Counterpoint: Stellar Blade is fine, but not anything remarkable. The combat is a lot of fun, but the environments are very bland and the story isn’t great

10

u/GensouEU 2d ago

For the environments I'll agree thematically, having both a Wasteland and a Desert was a bit much. But the actual exploration of those environments was great. It feels like other souls clones aren't even remotely trying in that department but SB had the most fun explanation by a mile out of them.

The story definitely isn't great but that frankly doesn't matter to me in a game like this where gameplay is king, especially on repeat playthroughs. Combat, exploration and OST is a what's important to me in these kind of games and it it nails those. It's definitely in my Top 3 this year.

-14

u/NewVegasResident 1d ago

Counter counterpoint; no one asked.

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u/BrewKazma 2d ago

I am soooo into Stellar Blade right now. No game has hooked me this much in a while. Runs awesome on ps5 pro.

1

u/notkeegz 2d ago

Did it get a pro patch?  It's hard to keep up now that every dev and their moms are rushing out pro patches (and now we're seeing how bad these devs are at understanding and utilizing these new tools...but that's another topic).

3

u/Grx 2d ago

It did get a patch!

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u/bwtwldt 2d ago

Stellar Blade was weird to play because the soundtrack was so off. Tonally it just made no sense and didn’t match what was going on in game. Maybe that’s some sort of Korean or anime style but it took me out of things

7

u/Owl_lamington 2d ago

The soundtrack is its biggest asset imo. Same composer for Nier Automata.

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u/darkmacgf 2d ago

I adored the soundtrack. Maybe the strongest part of the game.

6

u/Brawli55 2d ago

Raven's boss theme just autoplays in my head at all times - love it

0

u/loveschach 2d ago

I'm right there with you with Astro. It was really solid, but seeing it top so many lists is wild.

0

u/jackyflc 2d ago

Do you guy's think Astro Bot will come to pc in the future or it's something that won't happen because of how central the dual sense is to this game?

1

u/Da-Rock-Says 18h ago

I think it's safe to assume that all Sony first party games will come to PC going forward. The time between the PS and PC releases seem to be getting shorter and shorter too.

1

u/abbaj1 1d ago

It'll probably happen. People were saying the same thing about Returnal.

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u/TheDepressedTurtle 2d ago

I like everyone else in Digital Foundry but I just can’t stand Linneman. The way he talks over others in the podcasts really rubs me the wrong way. It always feels like he’s just waiting for his next chance to say something without really listening to the others.

0

u/dunn000 2d ago

Really weird rant man. You could’ve just not said any of that…. What a waste of space in your head to hold that much emotion for someone you don’t like.

9

u/FiLThYFreaK 2d ago

You make it sound like he had a meltdown lol. Get a grip.

1

u/MASHED_POTATOES_MF 2d ago

Ahah not surprised youre getting torched for this, but i feel the exact same way. I feel like if more ppl listened to the podcast they'd get it, he comes across as a real know it all there and ya constantly interrupts others. Give it a few years and this will become more of a popular sentiment

-15

u/Palmerstroll 2d ago

A lot of Asian games i see. I did play more asian games mysself this year also. Western games companies this year have problems with writing good stories i find.

A lot of Japanese game studio's show also you don't need the best graphics for a good game and succes.

1

u/miyahedi21 2d ago

I do love how Japanese games will focus on fewer mechanics and develop that mechanic in interesting ways throughout the experience. ICO and Wonderful 101 are really good at this.

Death Stranding was very refreshing too. Kojima made a believer in the fun of delivering packages efficiently.

-82

u/kripticdoto 2d ago

Great list as always, but oh bow, he really is gooning on Stellar Blade, isn't he?

16

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Diablo4throwaway 2d ago

Because that redditor wasn't born when Bayonetta came out, it's some toddler shit

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u/kripticdoto 2d ago

Term wasn't as popular, but would fit.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

3

u/dunn000 2d ago

Don’t waste your time… people are crazy.

-10

u/kripticdoto 2d ago

Yes, I thought that was obvious with my choice of words.

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u/-JimmyTheHand- 2d ago

What does gooning mean

16

u/Nats57 2d ago

I don't really understand the distaste towards Stellar Blade? People see a hot character, and everyone is up in arms. Ya Eve is an attractive character, but so what? Stellar Blade was a phenomenal game, and honestly, I wished it had won Action Game of the Year.

10

u/Serulean_Cadence 2d ago

Some people just don't like pandering, even if they're pandering to "gooners". Eve's whole personality is big boobs and ass.

-6

u/GroundbreakingBag164 2d ago

Are you actually trying to say that Eve is just "a hot and attractive character"?

Come on, we’re (hopefully) all adults here. Eve is a plastic sex doll with boobs and ass made out of jelly. You’re free to enjoy that, but she’s not just an "attractive character"

And no, Stellar Blade was not a phenomenal game. It was fine. But the boring story and godawful voice acting keep it very far away from being a phenomenal game

-6

u/Nats57 2d ago

Considering the fact that Eve's character model is based on an actual Korean model, your statement that she's a "Plastic Sex doll with boobs and ass made out of jelly" doesn't exactly hold up. Here's the link Eve's Character Model#:~:text=While%20her%20face%20was%20created,looking%20body%20for%20the%20user%22.)

As for the second part about saying the story being boring is subjective. Some may argue that it was, but I personally didn't. But agree to disagree on that. As for the VA, I liked the English accents, but I can understand that it may not have fitted in some people's eyes.

-4

u/GroundbreakingBag164 2d ago

Her body is an actual scan, that’s true.

But her sex doll face isn’t. Her unrealistically skin-tight clothes exaggerate everything to a ridiculous amount. And the person that made the jiggle physics has seemingly never seen actual boobs

You’re technically right, the quality of the story is subjective. But pretty much everyone agreed that it was just… bad

0

u/XMetalWolf 1d ago

It's impressive how much you focus on her body to observe and state out all those details.

3

u/GroundbreakingBag164 1d ago

I unfortunately have to, considering that Eve’s body is literally the only notable thing about an otherwise generic 7/10 action game. It’s the only reason anyone ever talks about the game, and it’s seemingly the only thing Stellar Blade "fans" care about

5

u/LeastHornyNikkeFan 2d ago

he really is gooning on Stellar Blade

Just to make sure I understood this correctly. During Christmas Eve, you accused John Linneman of Digital Foundry to be slowly masturbating for several hours to Stellar Blade?

Merry Christmas, by the way.