2024 was a year, that was for sure. Sometimes things happened. Sometimes they didn’t happen. Video games, what do they mean? The industry was a roaring fir…(someone whispers to me something about Los Angeles and insensitivity)…ha ha ha. Well, let’s just say things have never been better or worse depending on your personal outlook, right? Anyway, let’s reflect…
10. The Game That Puts A Cheerful Face on Goblin Eugenics
Sometimes, you have to turn the tables on those pesky adventurers and go adventuring yourself with goblins, one of the most neglected fantasy races. Building the perfect goblin adventuring party and finding the Goblin Stone may require light selective breeding and eugenics. Still, we all make sacrifices, and it beats getting murdered by hobbits.
9. The Game That I Enjoyed And Made People Very Mad At Me For Enjoying It
I played Palworld when it came out and Nintendo-likers were screaming that it was a ripoff of Pokemon. Fortunately, I don’t work for Nintendo and I hear they have a lawyer or two that can probably help them figure it out. My concern is unleashing the mighty thunder on…Pals…with my assault rifle while setting up production lines and ammunition factories, building a legion of loyal and heavily armed animals to conquer the world. If you would like an unofficial Pokemon MMO with assault rifles and can handle the burden of personally bankrupting Nintendo, I had a good time and you probably will, too.
8. The Game That Made Me Feel Like It Was 1998 Again
STALCRAFT: X is like S.T.A.L.K.E.R but online in an MMO from 1998. Very little is explained, the graphics are square and blocky, you randomly get murdered and do murders, everything is janky, and somehow, wandering around exploring is fascinating and compelling. Apparently, it came out in 2022 but I just stumbled on it last year, still counts.
7. The Game That Let Me Walk The Parapets And Sneer at Peasants
Manor Lords is a pretty fun twist on the city building/colony management formula because the metaphorical zoom out goes further and further as you get the various systems running until you are master of your domain. It’s doubly impressive because it’s a single guy developing it and it’s obviously a passion project, so it’s a little wonky, but, as always, it’s good to be the king.
6. The Game That Genderbent Napoleon And Also Mechs
Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution combines the delicious mechanics of a lite Paradox strategy game where you fight to control revolutionary France with the option to play a lady version of Napoleon and the historically questionable inclusion of giant, walking steam-powered robots. So you’ve got the empire/realm management, the political decision making, some pretty engaging turn-based combat, all the good things of a nice strategy game, the historical flavoring, and giant robots. What more do you people want?
5. The Game So Nice I Previewed It Twice
I am a sucker for roguelikes, so when you offer me roguelikes with alt-history World War 2 dieselpunk giant robots, I’m down. Apparently, I’m down to preview it twice. Grit and Valor 1949 looks to be evolving nicely into a neat little roguelike about ordering around giant robots, stomping fascists, building your base, and losing until you win, all the good things that make life worth living.
4. The Game That Beat Blizzard At Their Own Game
Marvel Rivals is like Overwatch if Overwatch was still fun. After years of development and Overwatch 2, it is testament to the standing of modern-day Blizzard that the most fun version of Overwatch was made by…a developer mainly known for free-to-play mobile titles?! I don’t even care about Marvel but damned if I’m not ready to hop on the Punisher and shoot at Spiderman.
3. The Reboot That Suddenly Appeared And Is Actually Pretty Good
Delta Force came out as a reboot of the franchise and, honestly, is refreshing. Sure, there are unlocks and all the usual free-to-play FPS nonsense, but it captures the vibe of playing early Call of Duty without feeling as gross as modern Call of Duty. In my first game, I jumped in, hopped in a tank with some bros, and rode around machine gunning losers and haters until the tank got blown up. Then I ran around with my assault rifle and grenade launcher blazing away. While there were and are operatives to buy and game modes to unlock, I never felt like I was going to die over and over again until I unlocked something useful or paid money.
2. Game That Might Have Taken The Top Spot But Then Path of Exile 2 Came Out
Last Epoch was a good time, especially after the ongoing tire fire that was Diablo 4. Even more exciting, it’s a throwback: You buy the game and have access to it rather than being imprisoned in games-as-service-microtransaction hellscape trying to Deliver Shareholder Value. It’s a neat game if you’re looking for a classic action-RPG. Unfortunately for me, and it, Path of Exile 2 came out and made me finally understand why people play hard games for fun, so I haven’t played it in a while.
1. Game That Came Out A Little Too Late For The End Of Year Lists
Path of Exile 2 made me understand Dark Souls. Normally, I don’t like games that seem to be hard for the sake of being hard, but I loved the first Path of Exile, so when I got the sequel and it promptly hit me in the face, I was wildly intrigued. Path of Exile 2 iterates on the Diablo-style formula with more dodging and rolling and is very tough to get your head around…but when you do, your eyes tear up like Danny Devito. I get it now. Even in Early Access, there’s a ton of stuff to do and it’s very playable and once you realize the game is telling you how to play it and you really do just have to, as the kids say, git gud, it’s mind expanding. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
