Good sci-fi and fantasy for 2024

[hammerofglass]

Just a thread to gush about things we liked this year. Quite a good year for new stuff for me.

Lower Decks season 5 was some of the best Trek in a long time, left on a high note.

Dragon Age Veilguard I really enjoyed, second best game in the series after Origins for me. Best actual gameplay in the series by a mile, other than Jade Empire I'd call it the best combat Bioware has ever done. Party wise they really nailed the vibe of every "nobody here is straight and I'm not sure any of us are neurotypical" friendgroup I've ever been a part of, half surprised a tabletop RPG never broke out.

I was one of the dozen or so people who really like Acolyte, great action scenes and I love a Sith story.

Baldurs Gate 3 came out last year but I didn't actually manage to sit down and play through until the spring. It does suffer a bit from the D&D 5e ruleset but it has probably the best writing and acting I've seen in a game. Pretty much ruined Bioware style romance plots for me by setting too high a bar, though.

Arcane season 2 was amazing, I think I liked the first season better but still holy shit. Had me yelling at the screen a few times I was so invested. Even if I didn't like the writing or the or the soundtrack or the acting as much as I do I'd still recommend everyone watch it just for the absolutely amazing animation.

Hazbin Hotel season 1 and Helluva Boss season 2 were really fun. I've had the songs stuck in my head all year.

Fallout series was good, really nailed the vibe.

Delicious in Dungeon anime was great, it's weirdly... comfy? Kinda hard to describe. Just aggressively wholesome. I'm glad there's another season coming. I should probably read the manga actually, need to look into that.

The two Star Wars "we got actual miltary historians historians to write in-universe military history books" they put out, Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire and Battles That Changed the Galaxy, were a lot of fun. They let the authors enjoy themselves and you can tell, it occasionally falls just short of a roast over how stupid some of the battles and combat doctrines in the series are if you think about it beyond "this will look really cool". Skywalker a Family at War is on my holiday reading pile but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Skeleton Crew is fun so far. I do find it amusing that everything else is clearly toned down for the younger audience but the violence is exactly the same.

[Winter]

Didn't get much of a chance to watch/play that much this year, between my dad's funeral, losing my pup, getting a new pup and starting up a reaction video series I've been a bit busy, I hope that I will soon be able to get things back under control but I did manage to catch a few films, shows and games this year.

Veilguard, was good but for me disappointing. Not bad but many ideas just didn't land for me, though there's no argument that the it's a massive step up from their last few games. For me it's better then DA2 but not as good as Origins or Inquisition.

Dune Part 2 was great if a bit odd but then again the Dune series is a series I've always found odd and not just because we've had three faithful yet off the mark adaptations of the first book. Not a fan of how they changed the ending but it's not bad.

Deadpool & Wolverine was fantastic, no complaints (except I think they were a little to mean to Johnny Storm but I still get the joke). I love that it manages to take itself seriously enough for the more dramatic moments to stick the landing while never forgetting that it's a Deadpool movie so it never takes itself to seriously. But what I like most about it is how the film is clearly a metaphor for Executive Meddling vs. Stories which is obvious yet very fitting for a Deadpool movie. It's great I love it.

Ark: The Animated Series. I've never played the games so I was able to go into this series blind and I had a lot of fun with it. It's not perfect and I've heard fans of the series kinda hate it but on it's own I found it to be fun and intriguing. Also it's pretty gay and I have to give it points just for that.

Arcane Season 2 is a bit of a miss for me but still good. Admittedly it had the hardest sell of any show this year as it's a direct follow up to what is seen as the greatest video game adaptation of all time but while I don't think it's as good as season 1 it's still great with several moments that are just as iconic as the first season. Also gay as Hell so again it gets major points from me.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is a series I was admittedly dreading as, to be completely petty for a moment, it beat me to the punch on my own Tomb Raider series which I had announced back in 2020. But it do what I was going to do anyway by bringing back Sam into the series and making a big deal out of her return. And it did a lot of other things that I wanted the series to do after A Survivor is Born but never did thanks to Square Enix screwing the series over. This series actually takes the time to address Lara's PTSD, again brings Sam back and allows Lara to grow instead of just retreading her journey from A Survivor is Born. Not the best, but it brought my favorite character of all time back so I have to give it credit.

I'm hoping that next year, and the years to come, I'm able to have more time to enjoy more films, shows, comics and games and that I can share my thoughts with them with you all more.

Marry Christmas.

[hammerofglass]

Winter you had a whole thread about Veilguard romances before it came out, what did you end up going with? Emmerich won me over with that old-school gothic charm.

[Winter]

Winter you had a whole thread about Veilguard romances before it came out, what did you end up going with? Emmerich won me over with that old-school gothic charm.

I romanced Neve first, next I'll be romancing Bellara and finally I'll be romancing Harding. I was going to romance Taash but their overall personality sadly put me off. From what I've seen in the concept art and ideas I think I would have preferred who they were before. From what I understand Taash was going to be cis and more of a fem fatal. I LOVED their original design whereas their new look is kinda... off. I don't know what it is but they look to... human.

On the whole I was happy to be able to romance so many female characters instead of the usual two but I was a little disappointed in them compared to other BioWare Romances.

[phantom000]

Nobody talking about The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim? I thought it was awesome!

[Winter]

Nobody talking about The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim? I thought it was awesome!

Saw it a few days ago actually, commented on how it inspired me to make Lara Croft a red head. It was a lot of fun, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being Rings of Power and 10 Being the Lord of the Rings Trilogy I put it on a 8, about the same as Ralph Bakshi's TLOTR film, not perfect but still pretty damn good.

[CharlesPhipps]

STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW and WHAT IF