2024 Likes and Dislikes

I’m Chris and this is METAGAME: a personal blog/newsletter about hobbies. Are you new here? — get free emails to your inbox.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve found on Tim Cain’s channel was about finding reviewers¹ that you can trust. It’s not always easy, especially in the age of companies either sponsoring content outright or sending innocent freebies to YouTubers and other influencers. Whose opinions should then carry most weight in your own decision-making?

I don’t remember the particular video, so I’ll just link to Tim’s channel’s home page. It’s well worth your time! (And I know it‘s not the first time I’m recommending it here — it’s just that good!)

Anyway, back to that specific advice:

Go through their review archive and see if they liked the games/shows/movies/etc. that you liked. In other words, seek out people with taste similar to your own.

It sounds so obvious now, but it’s not something I had been paying close attention to before.

To help you see whether METAGAME aligns with your interests and taste, here’s a list of various media that I liked and disliked in 2024. (A word of caution, this may look a lot like those #promosky posts on BlueSky — you’ve been warned!)

Games

🎮👍🏻 I liked

• Pacific Drive: Loved the atmosphere and their take on Roadside Picnic trope. Where STALKER 2 underdelivered, this one made up for it.
• God of War (+ Ragnarok): In late 2024, I was going through my PlayStation backlog. I really enjoyed the story and characters in GoW.
• Destiny 2: The Final Shape: Destiny 2 ended the 10-year saga on a high note. Enjoyed everything from the campaign to the final raid.
• Black Myth: Wukong: A souls-like where I felt like the difficulty was perfectly tuned for my late-30s reflexes. Plus, it was a big thing here in Asia and I enjoyed discussing boss tactics with friends.

🎮👎🏻 I disliked

• Anything Destiny 2 that came after The Final Shape: The episode format was a miss for me. The story, the direction, and pretty much all the news coming out from Bungie in 2024 – all bad. I eventually abandoned the game completely.
• Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred: Have I aged out of ARPGs or was Diablo 4 expansion just not good? The new class was fine, but I just can’t find anything enjoyable about the gameplay, seasonal format, or the story.

🎮🤷🏻‍♂️ Meh

• STALKER 2: I’ll wait until it’s patched and playable on my system.
• Path of Exile 2: Another case of aging out of the genre.

Music

🎸👍🏻 I liked

• St. Vincent - All Born Screaming: Never been a fan of St. Vincent. I discovered her latest album in preparation for Clockenflap music festival in Hong Kong. And it was a revelation. “Reckless” was on repeat in my Music app for a long time.
• Pacific Drive - Original Soundtrack: It low-key slaps.

Shows

📺👍🏻 I liked

• Slow Horses: Gary Oldman just kills it in this quirky spy thriller.
• Shogun: Speaking of killing it, Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada in Shogun — stellar performances. And the cherry on top with all the anjin-translation memes.
• The Penguin: And of course Colin Farrell as Penguin. And Cristin Milioti — what a scene-stealer! Lots of great performances this year!
• X-Men ’97: Came for nostalgia, stayed for impactful storytelling and social commentary.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: Final season aired in 2024. I will miss these characters dearly! If you’re into Star Trek but dismissed Lower Decks because it’s a “silly cartoon” — you’re missing out. It’s much more than that. (FWIW, I like it SO MUCH more than Discovery and I strongly believe it’s a better Trek than Disco.)

📺👎🏻 I disliked

• Sunny: Did not do it for me at all. All the intrigue and mystery from the first episode(s) went nowhere. There was no payoff.
• Silo (season 2): Just a slog. Barely anything happens. And once it does, chances are the scene is so dark, you can’t see a thing anyway!
• Dune: Prophecy: While I love Dune (it’s one of the most important books I’ve read in my life!), this series felt like a mediocre fan-fic to me.

Movies

🍿👍🏻 I liked

• ‌Dune: Part 2: The movie, on the other hand, totally delivered. Visited the cinema multiple times!
• Alien: Romulus: Story was interesting, visuals were fantastic, callbacks to previous installments were nice and not too much. And Cailee Spaeny was just marvelous as the lead for the movie.

🍿👎🏻 I disliked

• Deadpool & Wolverine: Same deal as with Diablo 4. Am I aging out of this genre or is Marvel just not good anymore?

Books

📚👍🏻 I liked

• Oliver Burkeman - Meditations for Mortals: A more humane take on productivity wrapped in pondering on mortality. Took lots of notes from this one!

Apps

📱👍🏻 I like

• Things: For a to-do app, it just works the way my brain works.
• Notes: Simple, uncomplicated, supports typing and handwriting.

📱👎🏻 I dislike

• Notion: Clunky, bloated, slow, and trying to do too much.
• Craft: Same as above but add frustrating navigation to the mix.

📱🤷🏻‍♂️ Can’t make up my mind

• Obsidian: I love the principles it’s built around, don’t love the execution.

So… how’s it looking? Do our tastes align?

BTS

In 2024 I started being more diligent about writing my thoughts on various pieces of media that I watch/read/play. And being more systematic about it.

For this, I use a simple tagging system in Apple Notes. If anyone asks me for recommendations, I can access that information easily.

I do that for all sorts of things. I’m keeping track of restaurants the similar way (helps when deciding where to eat), coffee (what beans to reorder from what roasters), and other products I buy.

It would’ve been easier, more seamless, and automated to do that in Obsidian with the Dataview plugin, but Apple Notes does a good enough of a job for me.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

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1. Game reviewers, movie reviewers, etc. ↩︎