I hope you’ve managed to join our adventure in the sandy expanses of Dubai with the November feature of the TA Playlist, Spec Ops: The Line. As the month comes to a close, it’s time to reveal the winner of the December 2024 TA Playlist poll.
For our final Playlist of the year, the team decided to take a nostalgia trip through our past selections from 2024. Each team member picked one or two games they felt deserved another moment in the spotlight. ManicMetalhead chose the delightful 2017 run-and-gun platformer Cuphead as well as the open-world “ShARk-PG” Maneater. BetaSigX20 threw in a vote for the chilling 2023 survival horror sequel, Alan Wake 2, and ChewieOnIce went with the imaginative 2021 action-adventure, Psychonauts 2. The voting was intense, with the leading games swapping places right up until the deadline, but ultimately, the winner—and our last TA Playlist game of 2024—is Psychonauts 2!
Developed by Double Fine and brought to us by Xbox Game Studios in 2021, Psychonauts 2 arrived a remarkable 16 years after the original game debuted in 2005. In this sequel, players continue the journey with Razputin “Raz” Aquato, a talented acrobat and psychic prodigy. Raz has finally fulfilled his dream of joining the international psychic espionage group, the Psychonauts. However, not all is well within the ranks. Their leader hasn’t quite been himself since being rescued from a kidnapping, and there’s a treacherous mole hidden within their headquarters. With a mix of suspense, adventure, and humor, players will steer Raz through a series of mind-bending quests to thwart a lethal psychic antagonist.
The TA community has embraced Psychonauts 2, giving it an impressive 4.48 out of 5.00 rating. Nearly 178,000 gamers have embarked on this psychic journey, with about 9% (around 16,000 players) achieving full completion. Completing all 57 of the game’s achievements typically takes between 25-30 hours, but you might find CitrineWorm138’s Psychonauts 2 Walkthrough helpful in shaving off some time. The game is readily accessible across all Xbox Game Pass tiers.
From the get-go, this poll was one of the most thrilling and closely contested we’ve seen in a while. Psychonauts 2 and Alan Wake 2 were practically neck-and-neck throughout, with neither gaining more than a slight edge in votes. Maneater and Cuphead kept close in the race, holding steady in third and fourth places, but never quite threatened the frontrunners.
As usual, you can earn your TA Playlist badge by unlocking any achievement in Psychonauts 2 during December or by contributing a meaningful comment in the Spoiler and Spoiler-Free threads launching on December 1st.
A quick word about the forums: We’ve made a small adjustment regarding how participation badges are awarded. Previously, this was an automated process, which didn’t give forum moderators adequate time to filter out non-substantive posts meant just to earn badges. Moving forward, badge awards will be manually processed after removing any such posts. Therefore, if you’re using the forum for participation, it might take a bit longer for your badge to appear. Rest assured, as long as your post meets the standards of substantive engagement, you should see your badge awarded within a day or two.
Thanks to our efforts in minimizing “badge only” contributions, those numbers have notably decreased. We appreciate everyone who takes the time to share thoughtful insights about the monthly game, as true engagement is what the TA Playlist is all about. Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation each month!
