Super Adventures: Game Awards 20X4

This week on Super Adventures, I'd like to take a moment to look back at 2024 and give some well-earned kudos to the AAA megahits and the indie instant classics that brought me the most joy over the last year.

But I can't! I think the only 2024 game I got around to was probably Core Keeper and that's been playable in Early Access for ages. So instead, I'm looking back at three other years ending in '4' to see if I can come up with some games that have been worthy of awards in the past. Here's how this is going to work:

• I'll be giving out 6 awards for each year, so that's 18 awards in total.
• I'll be using each game's earliest release date anywhere in the world.
• I won't be limiting myself to games I've written about for Super Adventures.
• If any worthy games are missing, that's because I'm leaving them for you to mention in the comments.

In fact, I'll even throw in a bonus award: Best Game I've Played From 2024. And the winner is... Core Keeper! Nice job Pugstorm, thanks for giving me hours of co-op fun in a cave.

Super AiG Screenshots of the Year: 2024

This year on Super Adventures, I got a little busy with stuff and wasn't able to cover as many games as I would've liked. It's a bit frustrating actually, as I'd put a hundred hours into a epic RPG trilogy (DLC and all) and I was about to get to work on an article about the third one when my focus was pulled elsewhere... for 6 months. I'm sure I'll be able to remember some of it though.

Anyway, you might be thinking that there's no point in me writing an article showing off my favourite screenshots of the last year when I only played 11 games, and I can definitely follow your line of thinking. In fact, you're starting to talk me out of it. But it's what I do at the end of every year and I'm fast running out of December, so I'm just going to get on with it.

Besides, some of those games are absolute classics. And one of the other ones is Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine, so expect to see an exploding skeleton at some point. The GIF's a bit graphic.

The Crew Motorfest (PC)

Developer:

Ivory Tower

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Release Date:

2023

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Systems:

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm finally back after a five month break and I'm writing about a racing game! The fifth racing game in a row! This wasn't my original plan, but a free trial came along and to be honest I didn't really have an original plan so I figured I might as well put some words underneath the screenshots I was taking.

Everyone calls this The Crew Motorfest, not The Crew: Motorfest, so I'll be skipping the colon too. In fact, I'll probably just call it Motorfest. Or MOTORFEST  if I feel like adding a bit more style to it.

The game was originally going to be called Motorcamp. In fact, it wasn't originally going to be its own game at all, it was going to be DLC for The Crew 2, but the ideas they had were incompatible with the game's capabilities so they just made it its own thing. With an upgraded engine and shinier graphics.

Okay, I usually play through the first hour or so of a game and write down what's happening as I experiencing it, but for racing games I give them more of a regular review, so this is going to be something a little different. Except I just reviewed four other racing games, so this is actually extremely normal now, I guess.

Far Cry 5 (PC)

Super Adventures has been a bit quiet recently, due the huge pile of work I'm busy digging my way out of, so here's a picture of me sniping a Spitfire in Far Cry 5 to give you something to look at while you wait.

Super Adventures in Delisted Racing Games Part 3: Forza Horizon 3

This week on Super Adventures, I'm reviewing one last racing game you can't buy digitally anymore. First I played The Crew, then I played Need for Speed: Undercover, and now this one's a Forza game. Most of the Forza games are gone now, but I'm checking out Forza Horizon 3 specifically because I grabbed it just before it was delisted and then never quite got around to trying it.

The logo looks like it's saying "FIII" for Forza Horizon 3, but it's actually "FM" for Forza Motorsport, the main Forza series. It would've been such an easy edit to change it to "FH" but I guess it makes sense to have one logo for the whole franchise. (The E in The Crew isn't a 3 either).

Super Adventures in Delisted Racing Games Part 2: Need for Speed: Undercover

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still writing about racing games you can't buy digitally anymore. I was inspired by The Crew being shut down earlier this year, as it got me thinking about all the other racing games that have just disappeared over the years. Well okay, most of them are still in someone's game library, they still work (unlike The Crew), but you won't find them on the PlayStation store or on Steam.

It's a problem that affects this genre more than most because of all the licenced cars and music. Those licences have a time limit and when that's up the game can't be sold anymore. As far as I can tell, the first 18 Need for Speed games are all either gone now or never were, unless you can find them on disc, with only 2010's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit getting a remastered rerelease. And playing PC games off a disc has only become more of a pain in the ass over time.

Fortunately, I was able to buy a few of them before they vanished. In fact, I've already written about the first 10 years of Need for Speed games, going from Need for Speed to Underground, so now would be a good time for me to cover the absolute highlight of the sixth gen console era: the original Need for Speed: Most Wanted from 2005!

I can't be bothered going through the hassle of installing it though, so instead I'm downloading one of the most hated games in the series: 2008's Need for Speed: Undercover!

Super Adventures in Delisted Racing Games Part 1: The Crew

This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing racing games you can't buy anymore, not online anyway. In fact, you can't even play The Crew anymore as Ubisoft shut the servers down last March! They just took a game people bought with money and made it entirely non-functional.

I struggle to write about racing games as basically all you do in them is get in a car and turn left or right. Sure the process of winning races is a little more complicated than that, plus I can talk about the types of races they have and their various features, but if I go down that route I'll pretty much end up writing an instruction manual and no one reads manuals anymore.

But screw it, this is my last chance to write about The Crew while it's fresh in my memory, so I'm doing it. Plus I'm throwing in Need for Speed: Undercover and Forza Horizon 3, because it's easier to see what makes something distinct when you put it next to the things that it's similar to.