Game of the year 2024

[Dr. Dro]

@Dr. Dro
At TGA they were how thousands of developers in the industry have lost their jobs over the past few years.

It clearly wasn’t enough.

This might sound fairly dark of me, but yeah, maybe make good games and/or don’t sell your studios off to giant corpos and then be surprised when those giant corpos do what they always do. Also, might I suggest NOT pumping hundreds of thousands into games to make them completely unsustainable if the sales aren’t literally GTA tier and/or the game is a soulless life service? The whole pattern of “genre pops off/trend pops off/gaming boomed during Covid - we hired a shitton of people - make a game costing a bajillion due to this - game bombs because bad - fire a shitton of people - try again” is just baffling. Swen was right in his speech - the recipe to success is really fucking simple, but those AAA studios seem to be clueless. Let them burn.

I echo the sentiment, they are more concerned with making a statement than anything fun. I have not purchased a single game on Steam this year. Not. One. I just spend money on miHoYo gachas instead. That´s a whole year of income lost from me.

 

[Onasi]

@Dr. Dro
Honestly, probably a better “currency for enjoyment” investment than most AAA games nowadays. I chuckled when everyone was hyping up for two big announcements that were supposed to make everyone shit themselves during TGA. Half-Life 3 was mentioned a lot, though I think everyone sane knew it wasn’t happening. I still don’t know what those were supposed to be. Was it that The Witcher 4 trailer, a literal non-gameplay cinematic for a game we already knew was coming? A 30 second trailer for an unnamed game that won’t come for years and for which the only claim to fame is “it’s by the ICO guy”? A trailer for more cinematic slop from Naughty Dog? What were the fucking hype announcements, Dorito Pope? I guess Okami 2 miiiiiight count, but I refuse to believe that many people give a shit about fucking Okami, it’s the definition of that “classic game that most people namedropping never actually played”.

 

[nomdeplume]

Ghost of Tsushima.

Surprised our resident gentlemen of culture haven't suggested Stellar Blade. Less surprised at none of the actual indie hits being mentioned.
Won't be even a little surprised if a console maker brings out the best game of 2025. Again, and again, and again...

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Nothing really stood out enough for me to claim it was my game of the year. I would probably say FF7 REBIRTH was the best games I played but it's technically a remake. Black Myth Wukong was very well made but after Elden Ring it's going to take a lot more to stand out to me in that genre.

The biggest thing 2024 made clear was that triple A gaming feels like its dying or at the very least on life support. Dragon age, Star wars outlaws, dragon dogmas 2, stalker 2 were major duds in my book and I was at least mildly looking forward to them.

Poe 2 while a very well made game with very interesting mechanics has been a pretty big let down once you finish the story and enter the endgame it's meh AF. It's in EA which is another trend I really hate never been a fan of developers releases half done games for us to beta test for 12-24 months while selling overpriced cosmetics but at least they still have time to iron out the game.

I haven't played Indiana Jones becuase I'm not really interested in the property never been a fan of it in general but it also looks well made.

Ghost of Tsushima.

Surprised our resident gentlemen of culture haven't suggested Stellar Blade. Less surprised at none of the actual indie hits being mentioned.
Won't be even a little surprised if a console maker brings out the best game of 2025. Again, and again, and again...

I think stellar blade is super solid I'd even say I enjoyed it (for reasons ) more than Black Myth Wukong but game of the year would be pushing it.

I'm at least happy eastern developers aren't afraid to make their women game characters appealing.....

 

[cal5582]

probably black myth. there really havent been a lot of good games these past few years. at this point im sticking to modding older games than playing new games.

Nothing really stood out enough for me to claim it was my game of the year. I would probably say FF7 REBIRTH was the best games I played but it's technically a remake. Black Myth Wukong was very well made but after Elden Ring it's going to take a lot more to stand out to me in that genre.

The biggest thing 2024 made clear was that triple A gaming feels like its dying or at the very least on life support. Dragon age, Star wars outlaws, dragon dogmas 2, stalker 2 were major duds in my book and I was at least mildly looking forward to them.

Poe 2 while a very well made game with very interesting mechanics has been a pretty big let down once you finish the story and enter the endgame it's meh AF. It's in EA which is another trend I really hate never been a fan of developers releases half done games for us to beta test for 12-24 months while selling overpriced cosmetics but at least they still have time to iron out the game.

I haven't played Indiana Jones becuase I'm not really interested in the property never been a fan of it in general but it also looks well made.



I think stellar blade is super solid I'd even say I enjoyed it (for reasons ) more than Black Myth Wukong but game of the year would be pushing it.

I'm at least happy eastern developers aren't afraid to make their women game characters appealing.....

gaming became very Hollywood and Hollywood hasn't had an original idea in over a century. majority of people that made the games we loved have left and gone sadly.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

It's too bad that Baldur's Gate 3 does not qualify for this year, otherwise I would mention that just for the new patches which added new evil endings and a upcoming patch adding 12 new subclasses. No one does post-release support like Larian has for this game.

I would say Helldivers 2 is the GOTY. Immensely fun PvE shooter with great diversity of weapons and play styles, very cinematic yet spontaneous gameplay, and like BG3, the patches have added a lot of content to the game.

 

[Vayra86]

@Dr. Dro
At TGA they were talking about how thousands of developers in the industry have lost their jobs over the past few years.

It clearly wasn’t enough.

This might sound fairly dark of me, but yeah, maybe make good games and/or don’t sell your studios off to giant corpos and then be surprised when those giant corpos do what they always do. Also, might I suggest NOT pumping hundreds of thousands into games to make them completely unsustainable if the sales aren’t literally GTA tier and/or the game is a soulless life service? The whole pattern of “genre pops off/trend pops off/gaming boomed during Covid - we hired a shitton of people - make a game costing a bajillion due to this - game bombs because bad - fire a shitton of people - try again” is just baffling. Swen was right in his speech - the recipe to success is really fucking simple, but those AAA studios seem to be clueless. Let them burn.

Indeed. There is far too much content and a vast part of it is utter junk. Those devs dont need to exist, do something useful instead because this aint it for them.

Games are ART. Anything else is just fast food you can shove down your throat anywhere; not worthy of anything but a good shit afterwards.

 

[cal5582]

It's too bad that Baldur's Gate 3 does not qualify for this year, otherwise I would mention that just for the new patches which added new evil endings and a upcoming patch adding 12 new subclasses. No one does post-release support like Larian has for this game.

I would say Helldivers 2 is the GOTY. Immensely fun PvE shooter with great diversity of weapons and play styles, very cinematic yet spontaneous gameplay, and like BG3, the patches have added a lot of content to the game.

honestly its really funny because in saner times, BG3 would just be considered a run of the mill DnD game. its a good game and the game devs have given good support but that used to be the norm not the exception.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Funny question as it’s totally down to what the person replying likes. You will get a hundred different answers.
there are a few I have really liked this year, but none really GOTY.
I guess the best way to work it out is sales figures, as the most bought makes it the most popular doesn’t it?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Funny question as it’s totally down to what the person replying likes. You will get a hundred different answers.
there are a few I have really liked this year, but none really GOTY.
I guess the best way to work it out is sales figures, as the most bought makes it the most popular doesn’t it?

Sports games and Call of Duty would rule that metric lol last I checked they occupied 6 out of the top 10 spots..... College Football it is then lmao.... At least here in the states across the pond it would probably be a Soccer/football game depending on where you are from.

Helldivers Sold really well the only game to likely be brought up in this thread lol. I didn't care for it and neither did any of my gaming buddies but we all bought it.

 

[TechBuyingHavoc]

honestly its really funny because in saner times, BG3 would just be considered a run of the mill DnD game. its a good game and the game devs have given good support but that used to be the norm not the exception.

I would not consider BG3 to be a regular DnD game. The mechanics are the same as a DnD game, but no one playing BG3 has to know one bit about DnD, mechanics or lore.

It has the fully voiced and cinematic dialogue cutscenes of Bioware's best games, it has a ton of UI and QoL tweaks that elevate the game over its peers, it has a lot of subtle environmental storytelling that you would see in much older RPGs. For example, the implied story around the teddy bear in the Act One swamp is very sad, but it is just a one line sentence from a mother to her child. It is the location of that teddy bear and other story clues you encounter before finding the bear that adds weight to otherwise meaningless text. (Something that Bethesda could seriously learn from)

Player agency and continuity and internal physics are sacrosanct here, a party member can leap into a chasm to their death and as long as there is a bottom floor level later on that your party can access, you can resurrect that party member. I don't know any game that lets you do THAT.

Most importantly, the core game loop is fun even when played repetitively with little jank and there is a lot of graphical clues to draw attention to the important events happening here. The graphics look very nice with good lighting effects and decent textures, there is a good amount of particle effects, and everything has the correct color tint and saturation which mesh perfectly with the art style of the game (slightly cartoony or stylized, not photorealistic, but also not goofy or surreal). That is what makes the game beautiful to look at.

Yes, many games have some of these mechanics but very few actually blend them into a 100% coherent product. A lot of this is basic stuff that is not groundbreaking but Larian gets ALL of it right which many studios fail at.

 

[uco73]

Silent Hill 2 Remake

 

[Princess Garnet]

It's Silent Hill 2 for me personally, but I typically play a very limited number of new releases to have a broad pool of games to pull from. Still, it was good enough to where I think if I did play most of the other big names this year, I'd still land on this. Perfect, no (traversal stutter says hello, but it didn't ruin it for me), but besides that, it's nearly a 10/10 game for me.

Tiny Glade was good, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was good (Final Fantasy IX remake please Square!?), and Astrobot looked/was good from what I've seen (a family member has it but I only say a very limited bit of it). I think the latter of those has a legitimate claim to this too, despite being rather platform exclusive.

Life is Strange Double Exposure was okay... but not near as good as the original(s), and while that alone wouldn't make it bad, I don't think it's game of the year worthy. Same for The Last of Us Part 1 (does this one count as 2024?).

 

[londiste]

Star Wars Outlaws, followed closely by Veilguard

 

[harm9963]

# 1 God of War Ragnarök ,
# 2Hellblade II
#3Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Still have games to finnish , to many to count .

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

As someone who sat through the Game Awards show...I believe the game of the year is "f*** around, and find out."

Yeah, I know that this isn't a game, but it's the only thing this year that I can care about. That reference to the Game Awards is because there was an entire segment on the changes to the industry that led to a bunch of people losing their jobs. That wasn't exactly something I relish, but the reason that I think it's "good" is that the industry finally has to adjust back to serving the consumers. Like most entertainment, the games industry served a niche, expanded to mainstream, bloated into the mainstream, started being driven by ego, and then collapsed when its primary audience no longer matched with the production output. As per usual, some projects are a success...but most are a flop because they don't serve the people that are the core audience. Moreover, games like Black Myth Wukong and hang-arounds like Baldur's Gate 3 managed to dominate the news as positive examples of what gaming could be.

The only difference with the games industry is that the pandemic made a huge spike in profitability, the lag between investment and output was about 5 years, and in 2024 we are seeing the "find out" associated with the 2019-2020 focus on everything gaming being profitable so we should "find out" how far we can push a political agenda over proper gameplay.



As a sort of personal come to jesus moment, let me be not free of sin. I play Warframe. They released their big patch of the year in December. It's a long running game...so their player count is generally a slow decline, peak at content launch, then relatively long tailed decay to where they were before that launch...with a further decay as content ages. This year they launched and peaked at about 240% of their consistent base (usually 300+%). Their launch was...about right for the usual content and grind quantity (still trying to earn everything 15+ days later), but focused on cosmetics. Their new mechanic is a relationship system where you are time gated on responses, one per NPC per 24 hours. The entire thing is so you can have the "enormous" amount of lore dropped on you in a long grind format. They spent their limited time at the game awards suggesting that they didn't know what the game was anymore...and their own stream pre-awards focused on the huge amount of unvoiced dialog they wrote....in the form of 90s style instant message garbage. It's almost like the shedding of 50% of your player count in 15 days is the reward for focusing on non-game stuff that only you wanted is being rewarded with dis-engagement...beyond the disappointment of not releasing a core promised feature that's been hyped for 5+ months because it was so broken that you couldn't even release it as a beta in a game rich with bugs from 5+ years ago is almost comically inept promise not matching delivery. Even the things I enjoy are busted...so it's not like I'm an arbiter with impeccable taste.

 

[BSim500]

Selaco. A strange mix of Doom, FEAR and System Shock 2 using the GZDoom engine? Hell yes...

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Wukong is the only game worth playing released this year. Dry pickings, with the whole industry on the verge of collapse due to their poor choices and tendency to pander to tourists. I say, let it crash - and it will start with Ubisoft's imminent bankruptcy. They don't have enough cash to be solvent through 2025.

Are you limiting yourself to AAA? Because Satisfactory would like a word.

honestly its really funny because in saner times, BG3 would just be considered a run of the mill DnD game. its a good game and the game devs have given good support but that used to be the norm not the exception.

In the saner times to which I presume you refer, the mainline DnD games were frequently in consideration for various GoTY awards, and in one instance (Planescape: Torment) managed an overall win.

Good games with good support is hardly the norm. Sturgeon's Law is inviolate.

 

[Vayra86]

I would not consider BG3 to be a regular DnD game. The mechanics are the same as a DnD game, but no one playing BG3 has to know one bit about DnD, mechanics or lore.

It has the fully voiced and cinematic dialogue cutscenes of Bioware's best games, it has a ton of UI and QoL tweaks that elevate the game over its peers, it has a lot of subtle environmental storytelling that you would see in much older RPGs. For example, the implied story around the teddy bear in the Act One swamp is very sad, but it is just a one line sentence from a mother to her child. It is the location of that teddy bear and other story clues you encounter before finding the bear that adds weight to otherwise meaningless text. (Something that Bethesda could seriously learn from)

Player agency and continuity and internal physics are sacrosanct here, a party member can leap into a chasm to their death and as long as there is a bottom floor level later on that your party can access, you can resurrect that party member. I don't know any game that lets you do THAT.

Most importantly, the core game loop is fun even when played repetitively with little jank and there is a lot of graphical clues to draw attention to the important events happening here. The graphics look very nice with good lighting effects and decent textures, there is a good amount of particle effects, and everything has the correct color tint and saturation which mesh perfectly with the art style of the game (slightly cartoony or stylized, not photorealistic, but also not goofy or surreal). That is what makes the game beautiful to look at.

Yes, many games have some of these mechanics but very few actually blend them into a 100% coherent product. A lot of this is basic stuff that is not groundbreaking but Larian gets ALL of it right which many studios fail at.

This is it really. It just feels... wholesome. At the same time though, if I recall the older days... quite a few of those games were coming out at some point. From the Command and Conquers, to Worms, to World of Warcraft... I mean, they all nailed all of the little things too. Regardless of what genre you liked, it all just clicked - and let's also not forget the state the games got released in, in terms of 'sanity' - sure there might have been still the odd bug or exploit, but it would almost always be something exceptional, and in the case of exploits, quite often became part of a game's charm.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'll go first: Indiana Jones and the great circle

I'll second that!

But not Black Myth. It's a tech demo IMPO. Vapid as a game..