December 2024’s TA Playlist Game Revealed

With November wrapping up, we hope you’ve had the chance to dive into the sandy chaos of Dubai with our featured game for the month, Spec Ops: The Line. Now, as the calendar flips to December, it’s time to unveil the winner of the TA Playlist poll for the final month of 2024.

Looking back over this year’s Playlists, our team members had the chance to spotlight a few deserving games for another moment in the spotlight. ManicMetalhead threw in two picks: the nostalgic 2017 run-and-gun platformer Cuphead and the delightfully bizarre “ShARk-PG” known as Maneater. On the other hand, BetaSigX20 backed the chilling 2023 sequel, Alan Wake 2, while ChewieOnIce championed the 2021 action-packed Psychonauts 2. The poll was as tight as they come, with each game vying for the top spot till the last minute. And, after a thrilling vote-off, Psychonauts 2 emerged victoriously as the final TA Playlist game of the year!

Released in 2021 by Double Fine and Xbox Game Studios, Psychonauts 2 hit the scene a full 16 years after its predecessor charmed audiences back in 2005. The story follows Razputin “Raz” Aquato, a skilled young psychic and acrobat, who’s living his dream with the Psychonauts, an elite group of psychic spies. But trouble brews as their leader remains off-kilter after a kidnapping, and a mole lurks among the team. Guiding Raz, players will delve into a thrilling mental adventure to unearth and thwart a treacherous psychic adversary.

The TA Community has shown plenty of love for Psychonauts 2, rating it an impressive 4.48 out of 5. With nearly 178,000 gamers diving into its world, about 9% have accomplished full completion, unlocking all achievements. Most folks might spend around 25-30 hours to conquer all 57 achievements, but with the help of the Psychonauts 2 Walkthrough by CitrineWorm138, you could trim a bit off that time. Plus, it’s available across all tiers of Xbox Game Pass.

This month’s poll was a nail-biter, one of the closest in recent memory. Psychonauts 2 and Alan Wake 2 were neck-and-neck, passing the lead back and forth with mere single-vote margins. Meanwhile, Maneater and Cuphead comfortably secured third and fourth positions, never quite catching up to the front-runners.

To snag your TA Playlist badge for December, simply unlock any achievement in Psychonauts 2 during the month or contribute a thoughtful post in the Spoiler or Spoiler-Free threads launching on December 1st. A quick heads-up regarding our forum badge process: we’ve switched things up a bit. Previously an automatic system, we now manually award badges after reviewing participation to weed out non-substantive “badge only” posts. This means it might take a smidge longer for your badge to appear if you’re posting in the forum, but rest assured, as long as your post adds to the discussion, you’ll receive your badge promptly within a day or two.

We’ve seen a noticeable drop in “badge only” posts since tightening our guidelines, and for that, we owe a big thanks to everyone who’s been adding value to our game discussions. The heart of the TA Playlist is truly about sparking conversation, and we appreciate every single one of you who joins us each month!