While not as memorable and explosive as last year, 2024 has been another great year for video games. We’ve seen som great games come out, incredible adaptations, and probably the best show from The Game Awards to this date.

My Six Personal Favorites

2024 has been a slower gaming year for me, as many of the releases I’m looking forward to are scheduled for 2025, or were supposed to release this year, but got delayed into next year. But there were a handful games that I’ve really enjoyed this year. Before I name those six games, I have a few short honorable mentions:

I had so much fun with the open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds that was held at the beginning of November, and I can’t wait for the full release on the 28th of February.
Deadlock, Valve’s new hero-shooter inspired MOBA-games (multiplayer online battle arena), has been enjoyable, but the game is still under developement, and is therefore just in an open-invite beta version until it releases at a later date.
Chapter 6 of Fortnite has barely started, so it didnt feel right to include it, but I haven’t had this much fun with Fortnite since the early days of Chapter 1 back in 2018.
The last one is Pokemon TCG Pocket, which is a mobile version of the popular trading card game. I have been having a great time with building decks and battling, but it is bogged down by the usual “free-to-play mobile game” monetizations that are so common in the industry.

Now, onto the my personal six favorites of the year:

Marvel Rivals

I had initially written off Marvel Rivals before it came out. While I thought it looked fun in the trailers, the concept of another PvP hero-shooter didnt really interest me that much, as I’m starting to get bored with the genre. But, then I played for a couple hours with some friends when it came out on the 6th of December, and I was very surprised with how much fun I had. The 33 characters the game has currently, both obscure ones like “Jeff the Land Shark” and Marvel staples like “Iron Man”, feel very unique to play from each other, and almost every character feels like they’re able to have an impact on the match. I’m still playing it these days, even to the point where I’ve been playing ranked with some friends, which is something I rarely do in a PvP shooter game. Marvel Rivals has only been out for around two weeks at the time of writing, but it deserves a spot on my list for how much it caught me off-guard, and for how much fun I’m having playing it.

Buckshot Roulette

I first heard about Buckshot Roulette by seeing some content creators I watch play it at the beginning of the year, but I didn’t play it until a short time after it was released on the platform Steam in early April. It’s a very simple game where you play a russian roulette-esque game, but the revolver is replaced with a shotgun. At the beginning of each round, a random amount of blank and live rounds are placed inside the shotgun, and your goal is to kill your opponent, called “The Dealer”. You have items, or power-ups, that you can use strategically to gain information and advantages to win. After winning three rounds, you win your prize, but you also gain access to the “Double or Nothing” mode, which is where most of my playtime is. In this mode the game places you in a single round against “The Dealer” - if you win, you can either leave with your prize, or go another round to double it, which you can continue to do as long as you want. The simple, but deep style of gameplay makes it extremely replayable, and the strategic elements make you really think about your choices during the round. The gritty PS1-inspired visual style really enhances the experience too. I haven’t gotten around to trying the multiplayer mode they’ve added, but I’m excited to eventually try it out.

Helldivers 2

The first few months after Helldivers 2 launched in early February is some of the most fun I’ve had with gaming in years. The constant live updates with new “major orders” for the community, which gave us new objectives on new planets within the Terminid and Automaton sectors of the galaxy. New progression came out each month in the form of “Warbonds”, keping the game feeling super fresh. It felt like a moment in gaming, where almost everyone I play games with was playing it at some point during that time, and the constant updates made you want to log in each day to keep up to date with what’s going on. While Arrowhead did later stumble a little in how they chose to balance the game, making it feel a little slow-paced compared to the popcorn-chewing action of the early months, I think they’ve found their stride again with their recent major updates. Playing the game has just been super fun, and has been a very social game for me, as it’s been a game where we can just chat and hang out, while blasting killer robots and murderous alien bugs in the name of “Super Earth”. I’ll always remember fighting my first “Bile Titan” when first entering the medium difficulties. Or the time me and my friends tried the “Helldive” difficulty - the hardest difficulty the game has - for the first time while fighting the Automatons, and immediatly got overrun by “Hulks” and “Devestators”. Or when they added the mech-suits to the game, adding a new way to experience combat. I’ll especially remember the long fight for control over the planet named “Malevelon Creek”.

The most recent major update, “Omens of Tyranny” was shadow-dropped at The Game Awards, re-introducing the “Illuminate” enemy faction from the first game. I have not had time to jump back in to try this update, but it is something I will do over the holiday season. Helldivers 2 is one of my favorites from the year, and has even become an all-time favorite of mine. I’m very excited to see where Arrowhead Studios takes the game in the future.

Webfishing

Webfishing is probably the most relaxing game I’ve played this year. The concept is super simple - you fish, either in a pond, or in the ocean, ideally with friends, and you just hang out. The solo developer, “iamdeveloper” describes it as a “chatroom-focused fishing game”, which I think is a very fitting description. I’ve spent many hours in the game since I started playing it in mid-November with some friends, where we would hang out on Discord and just fish together in Webfishing while chatting. I remember when a friend of mine caught themselves a whale while we were fishing on the pier, and we all let out a loud “Woah!”. There are many fish in the game that deserve those “Wow”-moments, but I don’t wanna spoil them here.

As you continue fishing, you can spend the money you earn from selling the fish to buy upgrades for your fishing rod, purchase better bait so you can fish higher rarities of fish, or buy two small frog friends that fish from a bucket (it’s so adorable) that serve as a way to passively catch fish. You can also spend the money you earn on cosmetics for your cat or dog avatar to customize how you look in the game. It’s been a very relaxing social game that I’ve had a ton of fun to play with friends, and I expect myself to continue playing it for a while until I fill out my fish catalogue.

Promotional-Art for the expansion *The Final Shape* in *Destiny 2*. Photo and Copyright: Bungie & Sony

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

It’s no secret that I absolutely adore Destiny 2. It’s my favorite game of all time, and this year’s expansion, The Final Shape, really solidified that. This was our “Endgame”, a conclusion to the “Light and Darkness” saga that’s been told since the first Destiny came out in 2014. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier article, I didn’t start playing Destiny 2 until the expansion Shadowkeep came out in 2019, and I very quickly caught up on the story, as I fell in love with this game’s universe and story. It has been a long journey, with some fumbles along the way, but the overall story has been so enjoyable to follow over the years, and the conclusion we got to this story in The Final Shape was incredible. Once the credits rolled, I was amazed at how the developer, Bungie, had stuck the landing for a story that was ten years in the making, with such a satisfying and emotional conclusion.

Outside of the story, the expansion has just been so thrilling to play. The “legendary” difficulty for the campaign made me feel challenged, while also making the narrative land better for me. I loved exploring the destination “The Pale Heart” in all it’s different biomes, and finding every secret that Bungie has hidden. The new subclass “Prismatic” has opened up so many doors for buildcrafting and shaping your character just how you want them to be, and it has become my favorite way to play the game. “Salvation’s Edge”, the raid that launched the first weekend after expansion-launch, blew me away with how difficult, but fun, the experience was, and it has become my second favorite raid Bungie has ever made. This expansion felt like a moment in gaming, especially in the franchise, and I’ll remember this for as long as I live.

Cover-Art for the DLC *Shadow of the Erdtree* for the game *Elden Ring*. Photo and Copyright: From Software

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Shadow of the Erdtree is the best thing I played this year, followed closely by The Final Shape. I was very excited when they first revealed the DLC, as just “more Elden Ring” was everything I wanted from an expansion to one of my all-time favorites. And WOW, how the developer FromSoftware delivered on that front. What made Elden Ring so special when it came out in 2022, was the feeling of playing it - discovering the map and world at your own pace, knowing that every nook and cranny can hide a cave or dungeon that you’ll spend a while exploring, while hearing whispers from others on social media about something cool they found, but they dont wanna spoil what was.

There was something magical about the world that FromSoftware had created, and I had the exact same feeling while playing Shadow of the Erdtree this summer. While not as large as the main game, the map in the DLC (downloadable content) is just as packed with things to find and get sidetracked with, bosses to fight, and a story to uncover as you explore. I have so many things I could talk about regarding Shadow of the Erdtree, but those things are best discovered on your own. Elden Ring was already a must-play game in my opinion, and Shadow of the Erdtree has made that even more apparent. It’s the best thing I’ve played this year, and I cannot wait to see where FromSoftware takes this universe.

The best The Game Awards show to date

Our culture editor Markus has already recapped this year’s The Game Awards, so I won’t spend too much time talking about it, but there were a few moments from the show that really stood out to me while whatching.

The musical performances by the artists Royal & the Serpent, d4vd and Twenty One Pilots and their respective songs made for season two of Arcane (2024), “Wasteland”, “Remember Me” and “The Line” was incredible. Seeing Astro Bot take home it’s very deserved win for Game of the Year was one of the highlights, as well as Melina Juergens getting flowers for her amazing performance in Hellblade 2, and CaseOh getting his recognition for an incredible year as Content Creator of the Year. I was super excited to see the announcements for the games Elden Ring: Nightreign, Dispatch, a sequel to OKAMI, and a new project from video game designer Fumito Ueda who is the mastermind behind cult-classics like Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005).

There was especially two moments during the night that stuck with me. The first one was Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, creators of Baldur’s Gate 3, which won Game of the Year in 2023, and his incredible speech before announcing this year’s winner. It was a speech adressing the developers and CEO’s in attendance, where he called out the corporate greed and massive layoffs that has plagued this industry for the last three years, and how we should nurture our talented developers and prioritize them over a quarterly profit bonus. It was a great speech that seemed to really resonate with developers in the crowd and online, and it was fantastic seeing Vincke take this stance in a year where an estimated total of 14 600 developers have lost their jobs to layoffs in 2024 alone.

This leads to the second standout moment, which to me was probably the most important moment of the night. Geoff Keighley, host and creator of The Game Awards, got critized last year for not mentioning the layoffs that also plagued 2023, and not giving enough time on-stage to the winners of the Awards. It seems like he took that criticism to heart, and after having a segment of the night dedicated to talking about the layoffs and instability that we’ve seen over the last three years, he handed out the first ever “TGA Game Changer” Award to Amir Satvat. Over the last few years, Satvat has been working on helping developers affected by layoffs, by helping them find oppurtinities and work in the industry again, all free of charge. He’s been working tirelessly behind the scenes and helping others find work again, and seeing him get commemorated with the first ever TGA Game Changer Award was a very special moment of the night. I hope Vincke’s speech, and Satvat winning his award, will send a message to the industry to prioritize developers over profits.

Image of Amir Satvat during his speech after winning the first ever “TGA Game Changer” Award for his incredible work. Photo: The Game Awards

Looking ahead

Personally, 2024 has been a slower gaming year for me, but the things that have come out that I’ve played has still been very memorable. I have some games in my backlog from 2024 that I need to get around to playing next year, and I’m really looking forward to 2025’s releases. I do hope that the trend of layoffs and shutdowns of studios is something we will see less of next year, and I really hope that moments like Amir Satvat getting his recognition for his work can help send a message to the wider industry about how we should treat the developers that creates the games we love with more dignity - not just as another number on a spreadsheet when the cash runs low.

A slow burn - My Favorite's in Gaming for 2024