GameReviewPad Video Game Hall of Shame 2024

MultiVersus

Developer: Player First Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Disclosure: I am a paying customer of a Founder’s Pack

My anger towards MultiVersus gets my blood boiling, so I’m going to keep this one as a quick as I can. This is free-to-play platform fighter, similar to the Super Smash Bros franchise, except this uses Warner Bros. characters and characters from other IPs. I also want to fully disclose that when the game came out in 2022 I purchased a “Founder’s Pack” to show my support and get extra character unlock tickets because I liked the vision and framework of the game. In an unprecedented move, Player First Games pulled MultiVersus offline after it was arguably in “open beta” according to the developers. I won’t get into that, The game was struggling and the developers felt it needed cleanup for a re-release.

So I paid for a game and could no longer play it online in mid-2023. This was an issue, but only a minor issue compared to what the game would become when it returned available to play fully launched in April 2024.

When MultiVersus returned to operations it was a completely new experience than the one that was presented and played that got most gamers interested. Free-to-play characters could be acquired using in-game gold in the first version, but upon re-launch that gold system was scrapped and anyone who had saved up gold lost their gold to a new converted currency that wasn’t fair. The MultiVersus that released in April 2024 was NOT the MultiVersus that got me interested enough to buy a Founder’s Pack. Furthermore, the game was completely designed with a mobile microtransaction user interface with many different types of disgusting currencies. The layout was different, the way unlocks happened were different, and even the gameplay itself was a lot slower. The game now featured many things that turn off the modern gamer.

What was there for me? Nothing. The game I enjoyed was no longer there. To add insult to everything I couldn’t get a refund from Steam because I played too much of it from original release  Even stranger, Founder’s Packs could no longer be purchased. Players First Games, an ironic name, pulled the rug out from all of us that bought Founder’s Packs and now the game is completely different than the one we based our purchase on.

If MultiVersus was what it is now, I never would have bought a Founder’s Pack. 

This MultiVersus experience highlights a loophole in the Steam refund system. Any developer can charge money for their game, pull their game offline, and completely remake it to be something else.

This makes MultiVersus, developed by Player First Games, my first ever Video Game Hall of Shame inductee.

Steam Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1818750/MultiVersus/

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GameReviewPad Favorite Games of 2024

Last Epoch

Developer: Eleventh Hour Games
Publisher: Eleventh Hour Games

Last Epoch is a dungeon-crawling ARPG that I’ve been following in Steam Early Access since the beginning but decided to wait until Version 1.0 to try out. It was worth the wait. Last Epoch strikes the perfect balance between complexity and new player friendly, making it one of the best ARPGs on the market. There are tons of character builds to try and the game doesn’t punish you hard if you want to make changes midway your playthrough. The crafting system is also the perfect balance for every player to understand the risk and reward. The strength of Last Epoch is its character building and customization, but falls a bit short with the campaign due to the type of story being told featuring multiple timelines thus making the map navigation confusing sometimes.

Eleventh Hour Games is a new indie studio releasing their first game and it showed on launch, but fixed things relatively quickly. As a new game in the ARPG genre, they are going up against a few other heavy hitters, but Last Epoch still has a lot of legs due to the friendly nature of the game to new players. I didn’t play quite as much as I would have liked to in 2024, but I enjoyed playing as a Rogue Falconer, a class that uses bows and falcons to attack/dive bomb on enemies. I was excited to try out this new subclass and it didn’t disappoint!  There are so many other classes I want to try out, but my time is limited. I will definitely try to go back to Last Epoch in 2025 and play more of the endgame. I also applaud Eleventh Hour Games for creating a new trading merchant system and solo self-found item acquisition system that definitely moves the genre forward when it comes to the subject of trading, even if it needs a lot tweaking.

Congrats to Eleventh Hour Games for giving us a strong entry into the ARPG genre, a genre I really love!

Steam Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/899770/Last_Epoch/

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GameReviewPad Favorite Games of 2024

Balatro

Developer: LocalThunk
Publisher: Playstack

Balatro is a game that came out of nowhere for me. This includes the release itself and it ending up being one of my favorite games of 2024. When Balatro first released I bought it because I enjoy poker, but this single player roguelike experience didn’t capture me right away. This game features many variables to the standard five card draw poker game. This includes deck size, card variables, hand size, discards, and special jokers that change the way a standard poker game is analyzed. As an enjoyer of non-gambling poker, I played the game a little bit on launch but could not really get hooked into the gameplay loop, in part due to my lack of patience and other new games available to play at the time.

I went back to Balatro this past December and spent a lot of time with it. The single player experience captured me this time around due to the overall gameplay loop of unlocking decks, new special joker cards that affect scoring multipliers, and trying out new strategies to achieve high scores. Poker has been around forever, but Balatro is a special game that you have to really enjoy poker to keep playing. It’s not for everyone, and even at times can be bland, but this serves as a pretty fun casual game that you can play a game here or there and have a different experience each time.

This isn’t designed to be a review, so I encourage you to check out the trailer below to see what the game actually looks like. The game is also on iOS/Android and I plan to eventually buy the Android version.

Congrats to LocalThunk for developing an excellent poker adaptation.

Steam Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/

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GameReviewPad Upcoming Content 2025

Favorite Games of 2024

My 2024 gaming was an interesting one for me. When it came to gaming. I played a lot of games, but not a ton of 1.0 brand new games. My list of games isn’t big, but there were definitely a handful of games that stood out over others for me. There are still some games that I’m playing and need to to finish, but it isn’t enough to halt my favorite games content. I may not rank my favorite games this year, but I still want to make sure my most enjoyed games get some props!

My Favorite Games of 2024 content will be individually posted here!

Most Anticipated Games of 2025

My most anticipated games of 2025 will be posted either alongside my favorite games or after I’m finished with my initial batch of favorite games. I have many games on my wishlist that I’m generally interested in, but I will confine my Most Anticipated Games of 2025 to the games that I’m super hyped and interested in.

Early Access Reports/Demo Reviews

After do a bunch of Favorite Games of 2025 and Anticipated Games of 2025 content I’ll be rotating between Steam Early Access beta reports and game demo coverage of upcoming games.

Andre’s Wishlist/Game Tracker

These days there are so many games being released that it is impossible to play all of them. I have a special system of categorizing games I’m looking forward to, but unfortunately I don’t play them all and I do feel a little bit guilty that I don’t cover them enough even at a minimum. I plan to go through my wishlist and talk about why I’m looking forward to certain games. This will be video content as well as written. I will likely sprinkle this content in the month of January with no specific timeline.

Are you an indie game developer/Gaming PR that would like me to cover your game via writing or video? 
Contact me: andre@gamereviewpad.com

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Andre’s GameReviewPad 2025

Mostly Video, Some Writing, and Aggregate Newsletter

2024 was a relatively challenging year for me. I moved to video and enjoyed a lot of it, but it was also a big learning experience that caused me to spend a lot of time trying to find work efficiency while also trying to still enjoy playing video games. I started the year entering livestreaming and I will probably continue to do that from time to time on YouTube. Having said all of that, I would like to share with you my new content plan.

–

Mostly Video (75%)

Moving forward I expect to focus most of my time producing YouTube content on my channel. During my period of dabbling with video in 2024 I realized that full playthrough content is not my best path forward, but instead focusing on shorter length review content is what I should be doing.

This will include the following types of videos:

• Demo Reviews and Gameplay
• Video Reviews
• Steam Early Access Reports
• Indie Game Focused Coverage in General

Some Exclusive Writing, But Many Posts (25%)

During my time dabbling with video in 2024 I realized that I’m so much better and efficient at writing that I can’t just ignore it. I also have this website. Previously I moved all my exclusive writing to my Substack newsletter, but I realized over time not many people were organically encountering my writing. I still like the newsletter format but I also have my baby, GameReviewPad.com, that has far better SEO results that I can’t ignore.

Moving forward expect exclusive posts here that may include game rankings, short thoughts on current gaming news/controversies, indie game spotlights, and even full reviews (if asked).

Additionally, expect all my YouTube videos to be embedded in their own posts with some writing accompanying them.

Aggregate Newsletter (FREE)

I originally started my Substack newsletter with the intention to permanently move all my exclusive writing there, but as I mentioned above, the SEO isn’t quite there yet to bring more eyeballs to my work. That doesn’t mean it will go away. From this point forward my Substack will serve as an aggregate newsletter linking and excerpting to posts written here and select important YouTube videos of mine. (Not every post and every video will be sent out.) The rate at which I send a newsletter will likely end up being monthly or bi-monthly.

I would still like to move back to the newsletter as my exclusive writing source once I have enough subscribers, but until that happens, I need more subscribers to justify the move.

Please sign up below for free (confirm your sign up)

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Good Riddance 2023, Welcome 2024:
A New Workflow Beginning (and slight rebranding)

Good Riddance 2023

Lack of Indie Game Coverage/Reviews

First I want to apologize to PR folks and game developers that were most likely overlooked and ignored by me for almost all of 2023. 2023 was an odd year in the sense that most of the games I had interest in were large AAA titles, so they ended up taking most of my gaming time. I can’t think of another year since I started this website where that was the case. So unfortunately, this meant I didn’t take many chances on smaller titles like I normally would.

If you’re someone reading this from a gaming PR company, I’m still here for 2024.

Personal: Health and Tragedy

If you noticed, the last previous post here was July 2023, as well as my last newsletter. Sadly, my uncle died in July, I got very sick in November through early December, and my cat Zelda of 17 years was sick in the fall and eventually diagnosed with cancer, then passed away in late December. The combination of all of that made it very difficult for me to enjoy gaming and also focus on running a newsletter/gaming website.

I’m still grieving, but each day is getting better

Welcome 2024

A Slight Rebranding

I usually like to use Januarys as a time to reflect and think about potential changes for the upcoming year.

As you may have noticed, I rebranded this website and my newsletter to “Andre’s GameReviewPad” for a more personal branding. In 2024, I’m going to extend that by regularly streaming on Twitch:

Dre’s Realm: http://www.twitch.com/DresRealm.

I want a more open-ended personal branding for my content that’s more like “Andre’s content network” that doesn’t confine my Twitch channel to just gaming, although it will mostly be gaming.

I will continue to publish my newsletter and review games under the guidelines previously.

Reviews from Review Copies get published here first and linked in the newsletter until further notice.

Workflow:

• Weekdays Monday – Friday: Stream 3-4pm EST until 6-7pm EST on http://www.twitch.com/DresRealm
• After Hours and Weekends:
  • Random Streams
  • Content Creation for Social Media
  • Offstream Gaming for Other Games/Any embargoed games for written reviews
  • Writing my Gaming Odds & Ends Newsletter.

YouTube: YouTube.com/GameReviewPad
All my playthroughs and short clips will be posted here.

Instagram: Instagram.com/gamereviewpad
Any and all instagram content confined to gaming will be posted here

Twitter: Twitter.com/gamereviewpad

• All Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends Newsletter content and Reviews will be posted here.
• Twitch live notifications
• Will use this for gaming PR and indie developer communications

Twitter: Twitter.com/andrecalvert

• Retweet Go Live Notifications
• Shorter opinions of all subjects will be tweeted from here, including gaming.
• Will use this for streaming communications

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Andre’s GameReviewPad SNAPSHOT:

June 2023 Video Game Hype Rankings

1. Starfield (September 6, 2023)
2. Baldur’s Gate 3 (August 3, 2023)
3. Sea of Stars (August 29, 2023)
4. Dave The Diver (June 28, 2023)
5. Demonschool (2023)
6. Wrestle Quest (August 8, 2023)
7. Mortal Kombat 1 (September 19, 2023)
8. Sonic Superstars (Fall 2023)
9. Pacific Drive (2023)
10. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (October 20, 2023)

#1 Starfield (September 6, 2023)

This biggest highlight of all the showcases in June was clearly Starfield. I talked a bit about this in my previous showcase newsletter, but I still can’t believe this game turned it’s hype around in one year. Last year this game was expected to release at the end of 2022 and was delayed, but it was not something that presented itself as something extraordinary. Starfield gives players the ability to explore over 1,000 planets, build space outpost bases, build/capture spaceships that you can walk around in and fly, and mold your character to your style of play while participating in a deep story. Starfield is definitely the most ambitious game with many promises since maybe Cyberpunk 2077 (2020). Technical flaws aside, Cyberpunk 2077 couldn’t even deliver on many of their promised features, so some of us gamers are a little skeptical that everything promised in Starfield will deliver and run well. I’m much more optimistic about Starfield because Bethesda does have a relatively good track record, even if their games are known for being a bit buggy and glitchy on release. This is a game that I expect my September gaming to be dominated with playing.

#2: Baldur’s Gate 3 (August 3, 2023)

#3: Sea of Stars (August 29, 2023)

#5: Demonschool (2023)

#7: Mortal Kombat 1 (September 19, 2023)

#8 :Sonic Superstars (Fall 2023)

#9: Pacific Drive (2023)

#10: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (October 20, 2023)

Click here to read Andre’s explanation for adding the above games to his June 2023 Game Hype Rankings, plus the rest of this Gaming Odds & Ends newsletter issue.

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Andre’s GameReviewPad Gaming Odds & Ends SNAPSHOT:

My 2022 Favorite Game of the Year…(I Think)
Vampire Survivors (PC)

2022 was a decent year for games, with big Triple-A games like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok releasing. Elden Ring is a massive game that I had technical problems with for the PC version, so I had to constantly battle those issues whenever I tried to play. I still haven’t finished Elden Ring, but I enjoyed what I played of it so far. I felt like I had to move on to other games because I was spending too much time with that. The tech issues wasted a lot of time. God of War: Ragnarok is a game I was very interested in, played a bunch of it, but unfortunately when it released in November I got sick and put the game down. I never picked it back up, but that game is definitely going to be finished at some point this year. I also played some interesting indie games, but nothing quite stood out to me as much as Vampire Survivors.

To read more of why Andre picked Vampire Survivors as his Favorite Game of 2022 and the rest of this Gaming Odds & Ends issue please CLICK HERE

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Andre’s GameReviewPad Gaming Odds & Ends SNAPSHOT:

The Gollum Disaster

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum just may be one of the worst video games I’ve ever watched and not played in a very long time. As a fan of The Lord of the Rings, I was hoping this would be a good game, but as I sort of alluded to in my last newsletter, I had an eerie feeling about this one. The promotion was almost non-existent and every trailer showed a graphics quality of Gollum that just wasn’t up to the times. For an indie game or something else you can make excuses for it, but this is LOTR for goodness sake! It has to look good!

When I saw all the reviews start rolling in that were in universal agreement that this is 2023’s worst game of the year, I was a little skeptical. It’s unusual for everyone in gaming to agree on something. I wanted to check it out myself just to make sure. It’s bad, like really bad! I watched various people play many parts of the game and the flaws were incredibly glaring. not just visually, but the game is incredibly stale. The developer, Daedalic Entertainment, is known for good point-and-click story games, so it’s a mystery why they chose to make LOTR: Gollum a 3D platformer. I did see parts of the story, particularly the beginning and the end of the game, and the ends is just atrocious.

To read the rest of Andre’s “The Gollum Disaster” Opinion and the more of this Gaming Odds & Ends issue please CLICK HERE

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More From Andre Shortcast

#01 Introduction

The More From Andre Shortcast is a random podcast where Andre gives short thoughts that don’t necessarily fit in the flow of his newsletter.

Episodes will never be longer than 10 minutes at the absolute rare maximum length.

SHOW NOTES

• Why was the More From Andre Shortcast created?
• Why the short episode lengths?
• A tease of what to expect in the future

CLICK HERE to listen to the More From Andre Shortcast – #01 – Introduction (4:16)

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