Given all the different places Lara Croft has been to over the years, you’d expect the virtual pinball tables in Tomb Raider Pinball for Pinball FX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) would be set in interesting, and international, places.
But while you’d be wrong, you won’t be disappointed by this virtual pinball machine, since both are as fun as running away from a giant boulder.
I used to know someone who loved to play Grand Theft Auto by running around and causing all kinds of mayhem so he could see how long he could avoid being arrested.
He’s now doing 30 years to life in state prison. Seriously.
Now, I’m not saying, implying, or suggesting there’s a connection, but I am now worried about my future after playing MANIAC, a ridiculously over-the-top, top down, arcade action game that’s like the first Grand Theft Auto if you played it like a certain someone I know in the slammer.
Given how it uses the same fixed camera and controls as the original, you might expect the new edition of 2002’s Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC) would be as frustrating to play as, well, every other recent remaster of a game from that era with the same kind of restricted motion.
You’d be wrong.
While it doesn’t feel like a modern game, the new version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny does have solid controls, and in doing so, will delight people who fondly remember this game, and this series, while also possibly engaging those who’ve never played it but don’t mind when a good game is somewhat retro.
When we play such post-apocalyptic games as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Metro Exodus, or The Division 2, we expect them to be set in dark, moody places.
But in Atomfall (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC), an open world, first-person post-apocalyptic survival action game from Rebellion Developments, the decimated world has a sunny disposition, and is all the more interesting for it. If only other aspects were as engaging as the setting.
Violence is never the answer, even when you inflict it on someone terrible. Y’know, like Nazis.
But virtual violence? Like in, say, a video game? That’s okay. And, if done well, can be as cathartic as it is fun.
It’s why I’d never punch a Nazi in real life, but absolutely love playing the Sniper Elite games, a series of fun third-person stealth action shooters set during World War II in which you undermine the German military by, well, shooting, stabbing, and blowing up Nazis. And German soldiers. And their stuff.
I enjoy them so much, in fact, that I don’t even mind that the newest installment, Sniper Elite: Resistance (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), is basically just the previous one, 2022’s Sniper Elite 5, but with new locations and one new mode.
Just as 2022 wasn’t as good a year for video games as 2023, so too was 2024 not as good a year for them as 2023.
Which isn’t to say there wasn’t anything worth playing this year.
Here, in the order I played them, are my favorite games of 2024.
When the good people at Zen Studios make their original pinball tables for Pinball FX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), they always pair realistic physics with unrealistic mechanics by, say, having the ball move like it would in real life, but on a table that has Mechagodzilla firing laser beam warning shots or K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider doing donuts.
But when it comes to their versions of classic pinball tables originally made by the iconic pinball company Williams, they have typically been faithful to the originals, both mechanically and aesthetically.
The operative word there being “typically.” That’s because for the three tables Zen have remade for Williams Pinball Volume 8— Banzai Run, Black Knight 2000, and Earthshaker! — they’ve added some unrealistic (but optional) mechanics to these classics…and not everyone will be happy with the results.
For the last few years, Call Of Duty‘s multiplayer mode has been the center of attention for players of this first-person shooter series.
But for Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC), it’s actually the story-driven campaign that deserves your attention.
And no, I’m not just saying that because I don’t play well with others…
To fans of video game pinball, the good people at Zen Studios are best known for creating original tables based on movies (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Princess Bride), TV shows (Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Zone), and other video games (Goat Simulator, System Shock), as well as accurate recreations of classic real pinball machines by Williams (Funhouse, Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray).
But they’ve also, on occasion, put their considerable pinball design skills to use on original ideas, such as 2022’s Wrath Of The Elder Gods.
Which is where we find them again with Camp Bloodbrook, a new table for their horror-themed pinball simulation system, Pinball M (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, Switch, PC).