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Along the same lines as Your Geek Media 2024 in review, but games! I'm sure to forget a title or three, be they good or bad. 😅

Personal highlights of great games for me were..

Mouthwashing

Silent Hill 2

Space Marine 2

Still Wakes the Deep

Proverbs

Factorio: Space Age

Some of the biggest disappointments were..

Class of 09 - the Flip Side (just WTF)

Honorary mentions go out to MechWarrior 5 for being an awesome coop experience I started this year and Power Wash Simulator for both being a great coop game and a mega-chill game to unwind to.

Mod edit: bait removed

Did Boltgun come out this year? It's the best Space Marine game.

Boltgun came out last year, but the expansion was released this year. It's a great game, makes me wish I was better at the boomer shooter genre.

I played Boltgun and had a lot of fun with it, I haven't played anything newer than that this year.

Game of the year is Astro Bot, easy. Hopefully it will give Nintendo a kick in the teeth about how to make a good platformer after the abomination that was Mario Wonder.

Space Marine 2 i've gone lukewarm on. After finally finishing it, it feels like a pretty damn mediocre third person hack and slash. Pretty, but gets really boring really fast. And i also don't understand why the story was a near beat for beat clone of SM1.

Going to give a shout out to UFO 50. An absolutely excellent example of a modern-retro style game collection. What Action 52 wishes it could have been.

Oh and if we're including DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree obviously. Just as masterful as base Elden Ring.

Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom was bloody good fun. Done in the style of SNES and Game Boy era, but with the open approach of Tears of the Kingdom. So many solutions to the various puzzles and challenges.

I wouldn’t say it’s a hard game as such, but it is a load of fun.

What the heck? I gave my list and its considered bait? Sweet lord, are the mods getting that sensitive now that basic criticism of games that have undeniably failed this year is considered not kosher for the forum?

You didn't even bother just editing the parts you thought were "troublesome".

Like I get BrookM personally doesn't like me, but it seems a bit overkill to nuke the whole post.

You could have at least left the games that I thought were good, I don't see how that was in any way controversial.

Since I have to repeat myself apparently, my list for great stuff was:

- Astro Bot
- P3: Reload
- Helldivers 2
- SM2

Disappointing/Terrible Games of the Year:

- Concord
- Dustborn
- Dragon Age: Veilguard
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Helldivers 2 and Space Marine 2. Probably put SM2 at the top because it made me love Space Marines again. I've grown cold on both games lately, but HD2 was the most fun multiplayer I've played in some time. SM2, single player campaign was fun and visually stunning. Probably watched the final stand/Calgar entrance scene like 20+ times. And the Dreadnaught vs. the Helldrake scene, chef's kiss.

I really loved the Thrones of Decay DLC in Warhammer 3 this year as well, if that counts.

I don't usually get around to playing stuff until it's been out for a bit, but this year I bought quite a few on release and honestly enjoyed them all.

I loved Stellar Blade. That game was incredibly fun. After a decade of open world games that take hundreds of hours to finish, it was actually refreshing to play something fairly linear that could be wrapped up in about 30 hours. The combat was excellent, the enemies were great, boss battles all fairly memorable, and the music was so catchy. Every track was a banger.

I sank 160 hours into Space Marine 2. That game was a lot of fun but a little bare in terms of content. I loved Operations and it's a testament to how satisfying the combat was that I managed to put so much time into it with only 6 ops to choose from. The newest op was fun but not enough to drag me back in. I may give it another whirl when we get horde mode next year.

Veilguard is easily my favorite game of the year though. The review bombing is so unwarranted. If you took the entirety of Taash's story you'd have less than an hour of playtime in about 90 hours of content. The combat is probably my favorite in the series. Pulling off detonations, using your runes intelligently, and timing your ultimate for the right moment is so satisfying. It also looks so flashy and beautiful, it was a spectacle every time I fought a large group of enemies. Loved the story and Rook especially. I was pretty lukewarm on the companions at first but they really grew on me as I got to know them and got invested in their personal stories. It's an excellent game and I hope it isn't another 10 years for the next one.

I've heard nothing but good things about Astro Bot, I might have to pick that up! I also wanted to try 47 Ronin and Black Myth, but just never got around to either.

Great games that released this year that I also played this year:
Metaphor ReFantazio
Satisfactory

Shadow of the Erdtree probably tops the year for me. It's essentially a sequel that lets you carry progress and very much a game unto itself.

Tekken 8 had a lot of early buzz but has kind of faded back away in favor of SF6 again for me.

Space Marine 2 is an obvious highlight. It's gameplay loop has kept me playing to the point I'm just about to cap the last class and I'm not someone who often plays online. The flow state on this one really works for me and the game does a great job of mixing up its spawns to make use of a fairly limited enemy set.

Echoes of Wisdom was good fun, though perhaps a little longer than it needs to be.

Shadow Generations is the best Sonic has been in years, though I'm not a fan of Shadow himself and cramming all his nonsense story into one game does nothing to change that. Superb level design though. I'm actually replaying this stuff just because its really clever.

Also technically released last year, but didn't really play it until January: Alan Wake II was superb.

Overall though, Elden Ring and Space Marine 2 easily got the most playtime from me. I don't think anything else is even close.

Many have already said it but Space Marine 2 is a stand out game.

The big surprise for me was Astro Bot on PS5. Just an amazingly well designed and executed platformer.

Unicorn Overlord is another noteworthy game from this year.

 Ahtman wrote:
Unicorn Overlord is another noteworthy game from this year.

How did I forget this one?

For me, it would probably be (for releases this year):

- Elden Ring DLC
- Metal Slug Tactics
- Thronefall
- Helldivers 2

 LunarSol wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
Unicorn Overlord is another noteworthy game from this year.

How did I forget this one?

What is so good in this game? I got interested after seeing rave reviews, downloaded the demo to check it...and all I remember was just pushing X for Next for 20 minutes after which I gave up. No choice in dialogue. No choice in movement. No choice in combat. I could have left this drinking bird toy with the pad to hit X for me, return after 20 minutes and I would have been in exactly the same moment in the "game".

Like, honestly, what did I miss?

Cyel wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
Unicorn Overlord is another noteworthy game from this year.

How did I forget this one?

What is so good in this game? I got interested after seeing rave reviews, downloaded the demo to check it...and all I remember was just pushing X for Next for 20 minutes after which I gave up. No choice in dialogue. No choice in movement. No choice in combat. I could have left this drinking bird toy with the pad to hit X for me, return after 20 minutes and I would have been in exactly the same moment in the "game".

Like, honestly, what did I miss?

I've messed around with the demo and the combat choices were in your pre-combat phase. Setting up the order and composition of the squads and understanding what they do in combat and then choosing which squad attacks which enemy squad.

The lack of dialogue choice is just because its a linear progression game in terms of storytelling (no idea if it branches later).

For me one big plus is that its not relationship simula...Fire Emblem - which were fantastic games in the past but these days feel bloated with the relationship layer and skill/experience farming. One of those games where you play it and realise that an hour has gone by and you're still messing around in the "between battles" phase and haven't actually made it into combat It's a good game, but I don't fully agree with the "everyone falls in love by fighting next to each other" trope they've got going.

Helldivers 2 is something I kept going back to this year pretty much constantly.
It's good to pick up every so often and play for a while then take a break.

Apart from that, Sins of a Solar Empire 2 but that's more a for the mods that will be coming out for it than anything else. Base game is fine but the modding community for Sins is god tier.

Landlord's Super, I know it came out in 2023 but it finished getting updated in 2024.
Space Marine 2.
Dungeon Antiqua, short, but a fun little reminder of old games like ff1 and wizardry.

Shadow of the Erdtree was easily my most played and while I enjoyed SM2, it's a fairly mediocre game all things considered. That being said, I haven't tried a great many games that were released this year, and likely missed out on several goty contenders. Honorable mention: Dread Delusion for its fantastic alien atmosphere.

Cyel wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
Unicorn Overlord is another noteworthy game from this year.

How did I forget this one?

What is so good in this game? I got interested after seeing rave reviews, downloaded the demo to check it...and all I remember was just pushing X for Next for 20 minutes after which I gave up. No choice in dialogue. No choice in movement. No choice in combat. I could have left this drinking bird toy with the pad to hit X for me, return after 20 minutes and I would have been in exactly the same moment in the "game".

Like, honestly, what did I miss?

I'm not sure how far the demo goes. Assuming its just the first few battles I imagine you didn't get to play with much variety in unit types or squad sizes. It's definitely a game that grows in complexity as you play. The first section of it is mostly introducing new unit types that operate in a very rock, scissors, paper, lizard, spock, etc kind of logic. The dodge thieves have make them almost invincible but they fold quickly to auto hit attacks or to multiple strikes that exhaust their dodge charges for example.

Where the game really clicks is as your squad sizes increase. I think its 3 initially but can eventually be up to 5. You start playing with the initiative timings and reaction abilities to create synergistic units that cover one another's weaknesses. A durable tank backed up with units that have revenge strikes when allies are hit can be really punishing. Positioning in the unit matters quite a lot as enemy units use the same targeting logic allowing you to place characters to protect others, but may also make them vulnerable to piecing attacks and the like. It's a joy to see a unit come together into an efficient machine, though you'll probably start skipping the animiations at some point once you've seen how they play out.

The last bit is the missions themselves. Once you've got a good group of squads you'll often have multiple threats and need to deploy them to capture points in different directions. There's often still silver bullets to any unit composition, so sending a squad lead by a gryphon rider along with an archer heavy squad can let you use the former to protect the latter from cavalry while the latter can focus on mages and thieves.

I'm not generally an RTS fan in general but this one really hooked me even more than Orge Battle. It's just got a lot of layered systems that combine in really clever ways. It could definitely use a stronger story as its mostly just an excuse for tons of combat encounters set up in a very tutorial manner to feed its many, many systems, but completely hooked me once I built up a solid roster through the opening levels.

I think one problem with the demo is they do the EXACT same thing Fire Emblem does for its early levels - they give you a top level (20) Paladin on horse.

This basically means that 1 unit will ALWAYS win every fight its in without any failure or choice.

When early fights also feature very few units it can get to the point where you just need that 1 unit to basically win every fight.


I'm assuming at some point the Paladin character will runaway/die/go off on a mission/get captured or otherwise leave the party and suddenly the game will ramp up a step in difficulty as you leave the earlytutorial game and enter the game-proper.

FE does the same thing though the demo goes a decently long way and your Paladin sticks around for a good chunk.

 Overread wrote:

I'm assuming at some point the Paladin character will runaway/die/go off on a mission/get captured or otherwise leave the party and suddenly the game will ramp up a step in difficulty as you leave the earlytutorial game and enter the game-proper.

Nope, he sticks around the whole game, but the rest of your units will rather quickly catch up to him and be on that kind of power, as will your enemies.

Sort of a late entry (it was released late last year) but UFO50 has been one of my most played recently.

It sounds like you had a mix of great and disappointing experiences this year! For future gaming lists, try keeping a quick log of your top titles as you play, so you don’t miss any highlights. I personally put it on CSGO at the moment, and a lot of useful information about the game I found in this blog https://skinsmonkey.com/blog/all-reasons-why-are-rust-servers-down-explained