The Spotlight is a monthly summary that encapsulates some of the more notable media experiences I’ve had over the past thirty days. From insights on games played, to articles worth checking out, and even cool stories from tabletop role-playing games, it all has a place in the Spotlight.
It’s another light month, unfortunately. But now that we’re in December, work can begin on Game of the Year stuff. So that’s exciting.
For the month of November, 2024, here’s what I’m shining the spotlight on.
Games
Dragon Age : The Veilguard
I wrote a whole thing about Dragon Age: The Veilguard that you can read right here, but the short version is that I felt the whole game was really underwhelming. It’s a game that plays it too safely and ultimately fails to establish any real identity of its own.
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Sadly, I’ve only played a handful of levels of The Rise of the Golden Idol, not because I don’t think it’s excellent, but because I want to be able to dedicate my full attention to it and haven’t found that opportunity. For the uninitiated, the Golden Idol games play pretty much identically, and involve you peering into a moment in time, collecting and deciphering clues and then ultimately putting it all together in a cohesive way.
It’s a game about deduction and paying extremely close attention to every clue, no matter how benign they may seem at first. I’ve been playing it on the Xbox, which has been a more fiddly experience than I was hoping for, but I knew what I was getting myself into when buying a game like this on a console. If you’re unsure about if you’d like The Rise of the Golden Idol, its predecessor, The Case of the Golden Idol, is available on Gamepass right now. Like I said, they play identically, so you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s your thing or not.
Super Mario Party Jamboree
I’ve never known any games that were as hateful as the Mario Party series, but that has not stopped my partner and I from playing a truly upsetting amount of the latest entry in the series, Super Mario Party Jamboree. In something of a return to form, Jamboree reminds me a lot of the Nintendo 64 entries in the series, primarily because they’re the only ones I’ve played before, and this one is filled with just as much, if not more, horeshit than ever before.
I assume we all know how this nightmare is played, with the dice, the board, the bad mini-games, the complete random bullshit? Jamboree takes this classic formula and adds a fun new wrinkle in the form of “Jamboree Buddies,” which is a feature you cannot turn off and is completely game breaking unless you’re me and have the luck of someone who’s spent their whole life breaking mirrors and walking under ladders.
See, sometimes some asshole like Waluigi will plop his ass on the board somewhere and wait for someone to come and talk to him. Should you do that, you then compete with everyone else for a chance to have him tag along with you for a few turns. You play his terrible mini-game, and whoever wins gets the “honor” of having him in their retinue. These buddies all have abilities that can either give you better rolls, better prices on items, extra coins and whatnot, but more importantly they act as a second player for you to control. So if you go to a shop to buy an item, you can now buy two. You buy a star, now you can buy two. You land on a Bowser spot, well that’s two beat downs for you. It can make the whole game get out of control really quick and I wish you could toggle this feature off.
The only thing pulling me through these games is my love for my partner, and the fact that I get to play as Monty Mole, the best character in the whole thing.
Watch List
Clone High
Look man, in 2002 or whatever, Clone High was the peak of comedy among my friends and I. Here in 2024 though, it hasn’t aged particularly well. The original series still has its charms despite some questionable subject matter and the fact that the entire licensed soundtrack of indie rock of the era has been ripped out and replaced by way worse music, so that’s something.
In stark contrast is the new continuation of the series that continues the story. It’s really bad. It has none of the aforementioned charm and seems to not understand what made the original run so entertaining in the first place.
Ultimately I think Clone High should have remained a relic of its time, forever leaving us wondering about how its cliffhanger ending could have been resolved.
Upload
What if Facebook owned the afterlife? That’s the core conceit of Upload, a show that sometimes gets a little too real for me to laugh at. Without going too much into story specifics, Upload touches on a lot of topics that I worry will eventually stop being in the realm of science fiction within my lifetime. Questions about who actually owns your digital consciousness when you die are the ones that particularly make me uncomfortable. It’s also a pretty good show too, so you should watch it.
Listening Party
Booster Seat – Spacey Jane
Less Than – Nine Inch Nails
The Remedy – Abandoned Pools
The Rest
Rough Month
For a variety of reasons, November has been a particularly challenging month that hasn’t afforded me a ton a free game time. Hell, even if I had that time, I don’t know that I’ve had the stomach to actually start a new game or get invested in something. I am so tired these days.
News
Nintendo Switch Online Services to be Discontinued in China
Inside the fall of GAME
McDonald’s is Trying to Kill You with a $20 Jug of McRib Sauce
Valve Discusses Half-Life 2 Episode 3 and More!
There’s a New DK Rap and it’s Fine
Man Throws Baby Against Wall In Anger While Playing NBA 2K, Charged With Two Felonies
Thanks for checking out The Spotlight. In lieu of doing game of the year stuff, we’ll be back at the end of January with another installment. Consider subscribing to The Bonus World so you can get an email updating you whenever we publish something new.
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