Hope you managed to venture into the sands of Dubai with us during November’s TA Playlist feature, Spec Ops: The Line. As we wrap up the month, it’s time to reveal which game snagged the top spot in the December 2024 TA Playlist poll.
In December, our team revisited all our 2024 Playlists, with each member championing a game or two they felt deserved a comeback in the spotlight. ManicMetalhead put forward the 2017 run-and-gun platformer Cuphead and the open-world “ShARk-PG,” Maneater. BetaSigX20 backed the eerie 2023 survival horror sequel, Alan Wake 2, and ChewieOnIce threw in the whimsical 2021 action-adventure, Psychonauts 2. It was an intense race, but edging out the rest as our final TA Playlist game of 2024 is… Psychonauts 2!
Double Fine crafted Psychonauts 2, with Xbox Game Studios releasing it in 2021. This follow-up arrived a hefty 16 years after the original launched back in 2005.
In this adventure, you step into the shoes of Razputin “Raz” Aquato, a talented acrobat and gifted young psychic who’s finally fulfilled his dream of joining the international psychic espionage agency, the Psychonauts. However, all is not well—their leader hasn’t quite been the same since being rescued from kidnapping, and to top it off, there’s a sneaky mole within their ranks. Psychonauts 2 is a thrilling blend of danger, excitement, and humor as Raz embarks on a mission diving into the minds of both allies and adversaries to thwart a deadly psychic villain.
The TA Community holds Psychonauts 2 in high regard, awarding it a stellar 4.48 out of 5 rating. Nearly 178,000 gamers have started the game, with about 9%—just over 16,000 players—achieving full completion. If you’re aiming to unlock all 57 of the game’s achievements, it’ll likely take you around 25-30 hours, but the Psychonauts 2 Walkthrough by CitrineWorm138 might just help you cut down that time. Lucky for you, Psychonauts 2 is available across all Xbox Game Pass tiers.
This has been one of our closest polls in a long while. Psychonauts 2 and Alan Wake 2 were neck and neck, constantly trading the lead, yet neither managed to outdistance the other by more than a vote or two. Maneater and Cuphead followed closely, holding firm in third and fourth, never quite threatening the frontrunners.
As always, snag your TA Playlist badge by unlocking any achievement in Psychonauts 2 during December, or by posting a thoughtful comment in the Spoiler and Spoiler-Free threads that will go live on December 1.
A quick word about the forums: We’ve tweaked how we award forum participation badges. In the past, it was done automatically on a set schedule. However, this didn’t allow enough time for our moderators to sift through and filter out any non-substantive “badge-only” posts. Moving forward, this will be a manual process carried out periodically once we’ve weeded out any unsubstantial entries. So if you’re participating via forum posts only, your badge might take a tad longer to appear; rest assured, as long as you haven’t been informed otherwise, your badge should pop up within a couple of days.
Thanks to our crackdown on “badge only” posts, we’ve seen a notable decline. We appreciate everyone who’s gone the extra mile to contribute meaningful interactions about the game of the month. TA Playlist thrives on these discussions, and we’re grateful for all your participation each month!
