Would it be a stretch to say that 2024 was one of the best years in video gaming history? No, it would be an outright lie, and an outrageous one at that. Let’s get real here – 2024 kinda sucked. Whether it be a late symptom of COVID or simply the video games industry collapsing under its own weight, there were very few BIG games.
But it wasn’t all bad. It wasn’t 2014 bad. Unlike 2014, I actually did come away with a complete list of 10 games worth putting on a Game of the Year list. It is probably going to be a weirder one than normal though. You have been warned.

10. Songs of Conquest

How to describe Songs of Conquest? Well, first you take Heroes of Might and Magic 3…. and that’s it. You now have Songs of Conquest.
Okay, that’s clearly not giving Songs of Conquest enough credit, because it does do some new and interesting things, but it is in every way the Heroes of Might and Magic V we should have gotten, instead of the terrible mess we actually got (that some of us foolishly bought the very expensive special edition of).
The only problem? Me being forced to remember how bad I am at Heroes of Might and Magic. This is not an easy game.

9. Metro Awakening

Having never played any of the previous Metro games, I almost certainly wouldn’t have played this one either if it wasn’t in VR. And to be honest, it probably wouldn’t have made the top 10 if it wasn’t in VR anyway. It’s not a perfect game, and has probably the worst example of mura I’ve seen on PSVR2, but it does manage to be the most fully fledged somewhat triple A experience I’ve played in VR to date. And wearing a gas mask in game while wearing a VR headset just feels so very right. It’s just too bad once I put it on I couldn’t work out how to take it off again…..

8. Bang Average Football

Allow me, for a moment, to take you back to the glory days of the original PlayStation. A time when we would buy video game magazines like Hyper or Official PlayStation Magazine that would come included with demo discs that we would actually play and sometimes obsess over. Also, everyone had Age of Empires because they just gave it away with breakfast cereal, but that’s unrelated.
It was in one of those demo discs that I discovered a very primitive (even for the time) soccer game, which had a birds eye view of the field, a couple of buttons (for kicking in a direction and shooting, from memory) and no licensed teams or players of any kind. But the game DID have co-op, and so a friend and I played the hell out of it and had a great deal of fun.
When I saw Bang Average Football on Steam, it looked like an updated version of this very silly and simple soccer game. So I bought it thinking I’d get a little bit of fun out of it (even better if I could convince someone to play with me) but what I had no idea I was getting until I played it was exactly what I hoped the game would be MERGED with (admittedly a very simple) Stardew Valley/football management SIM. It’s basically Stardew Valley meets Welcome to Wrexham. And the more I played, the more I enjoyed it. It’s very charming, and very fun.

7. Mouthwashing

Mouthwashing is a game you should probably just play without me saying much about what it is. You will be thoroughly disturbed. It will be worth it.

6. Legendary Tales

You could be forgiven for trying Legendary Tales for 30 minutes and giving up. It’s a fairly involved game, with lots to work out, and the tutorial is… well, garbage. I was stuck multiple times not being able to work out how to continue conversations with NPCs, for example.
But despite this, Legendary Tales is a game that VR (in my limited PSVR experience) desperately needed – a VR RPG with a very rich progression and loot system. There’s several skill trees, and a huge arsenal of potential weapon drops (including many great unique drops that can be worth creating a whole build around). The best part though? It’s entirely playable in co-op.
I didn’t play enough of this game this year (because I didn’t play enough of any games this year, and VR presents an additional challenge when trying to get a quick game of something in) but if I did I strongly believe this game might have finished higher on the list. Also of all the games on this list, it’s probably the game I’m most likely to keep coming back to in the months and years ahead – if I finally get some free time (which I realise sounds like a ridiculous statement from someone writing a top 10 video game list, don’t worry). The only real negative for the game(besides the initial awkwardness and tutorial) is the very limited range of enemy types in the game – but there’s DLC heading our way that promises to add many more, which is going to make Legendary Tales even more… well, legendary.

5. Balatro

I’d be pretty amazed if you somehow haven’t heard of Balatro, this year’s indie darling that took the world by storm. If you haven’t though, the basic premise is that it’s a roguelite poker game, only instead of other players you’re just trying to get bigger and bigger scores. And you do this by making use of a wide range of collectable jokers that change the entire way your hands work and also by levelling up different hand types. It sounds simple, and it kind of is, but it’s one of the most addictive games I’ve played in the past decade. When you see those numbers going up into insane levels, it triggers all the same things I assume winning in the pokies does, but without any of the lifetime of misery and destructive life choices. And now it’s on phones, meaning you can take that feeling everywhere you go.

4. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

The thing I’ve recently discovered about myself and puzzle games (and Souls-like games, for that matter) is that I like them best when they have enough content that I’m able to give up on something frustrating and go do something else for a while before coming back. They also have to strike the delicate balance of not being too hard, not also not being too easy. And Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a perfect example of all of the above. It offers breadcrumbs to follow, without laying anything out for you, and the puzzles you encounter can sometimes seem frustratingly difficult at the time but there’s usually enough to do that you can go try something else for a while instead and clear your mind. Plus, maybe finishing that other thing will make that first puzzle make sense. I haven’t completely finished this game yet because I feel I am very close to the end and I am honestly now completely stuck. I’ve also made it this far without using any guides or hints and now it’s a matter of pride. So I can’t tell you how the game ends, but everything up to this point has been brilliant and I hope to finish it eventually.

3. Core Keeper

There have been a lot of Stardew Valley clones in the past 8 years or so, and I have played some of them with middling results. I was pretty prepared to dismiss this as something similar until I read a Steam review that claimed that this was much less a Stardew clone and much more a Terraria clone. And that review was incredibly accurate – this has clearly taken a lot of inspiration from Terraria. There IS plenty unique and different about the game (like, the fact that it’s not a 2D platformer, for starters) that the devs could probably claim it was all coincidence – if the next game they’re making (Kyora) didn’t actually look almost identical to Terraria in every way (just look at this!)

Importantly though, Terraria is one of my favourites games of the previous decade, and while this game is not Terraria, it hits a lot of the same beats and has the same seamless co op experience as well. The crafting, exploration, combat, loot drops – it’s all very solid. And there’s also some Factorio-esque machine building capabilities in here that I had no interest in pursuing, but if you’re into that kind of thing – that’s here too!

2. Astrobot

When Astrobot was announced at the start of last year it was hard not to feel a little disappointed. Sure, Astro’s Playroom, included for free on all PlayStation 5 consoles, had been a fantastic tech demo for the Dual Sense controller. And it’s pretty clear that Sony has a potential winning mascot on their hands, so the decision to release a fully fledged Astrobot game made a lot of sense.
And yet… Astrobot: Rescue Mission on PSVR1 was my 2018 Game of the Year. And it hasn’t been ported to PSVR2, something that (while understandable considering it relied on the DualShock4 controller heavily) remains disappointing to this day. So announcing a new game that not only abandons the platform that introduced Astrobot to so many of us but not even bothering to make a VR mode for… honestly no real reason that I can fathom… left a sour taste.
None of that, however, changes the fact that this game is amazing. The platforming is superb, the levels are joyous, and as expected it’s so loaded with PlayStation nostalgia that it’s hard not to spend the whole time smiling. Apart from the optional ‘final’ level, which I’ve decided can burn in Hell forever after attempting it like fifty times.

1. Animal Well

Like so often happens with my favourite game of any year, Animal Well was not on my radar at all. I had heard that Dunkey (someone I only really know from making amusing Dark Souls videos) had started up a production company helping indie games get off the ground, and I had even watched the trailer for the first of these games – Animal Well – and thought ‘yeah that’s looks okay but not for me’. And then the reviews started coming in, and they were very positive. And I thought ‘eh, let’s give it a shot’. I’m sure you can guess what happened next, given it’s listed as my favourite game of 2024.
Animal Well is a fantastic game. It got its hooks in me immediately and didn’t let up until I had thoroughly finished it – at least to a degree that didn’t involve me actually having to collaborate with other people to progress (which is cool, but beyond me) or that involved speed running the game (because no thanks).
The world that has been built here is equal parts fantastic and… not quite creepy, but also not quite NOT creepy. It’s hard to describe. I’ve really experienced nothing like it. More games need to be as unique and interesting as this.
I will say that the platforming is not COMPLETELY perfect, but that was rarely a problem (unless I was on my 15th attempt at outrunning a terrifying ghostly wolf head and missing a vital platform YET AGAIN).
Animal Well is a triumph of a video game, one that I think everyone should at least try, and one that I am certain will stay with me for many years to come as an example of how truly wonderful video games can be.

Random other awards!

Best looking game: Black Myth: Wukong or Astrobot.
The Rocket League Award (Best ‘ongoing’ game): Walkabout Mini Golf.
Game(s) that I probably should have played before making this list: Skydance’s Behemoth. I am fairly certain it would have made my top 10 if I’d had a chance to play it. I also wish I could have found some people to play 7 Days To Die with to play more of that, because in co op that game definitely has potential. Oh and I’m pretty sure the new Indiana Jones game would have been in my top 3, but I don’t own an Xbox and my PC is slowly dying, so I couldn’t play that either.
Weirdest game that I wish I could find a spot for on my list: Trombone Champ Unflattened. Just pure silliness, and that was before I got a rubber chicken trombone and discovered different trombones often have unique sounds, including that one.
Most disappointing game of the year: Considering Pacific Drive was one of my most anticipated games for this year and didn’t make the top 10, it would have to be that. Pacific Drive isn’t even a bad game, it’s actually quite good. The only problem is it was quite clearly made for VR but released as a flat game (even if the devs themselves didn’t realise it). I’m not a VR purist by any means (none of my top 5 were VR games, after all) but this game so clearly would have benefited from being in VR (for example, using a joystick to slowly move a cursor to a gear stick when you’re trying to rapidly escape something horrific, versus being able to just reach out and grab it without looking at it in VR, is a no-brainer. In VR, this game could have been a top 5 easily. But as it is, I stopped playing it because I found it frustrating.
Worst game of the year: Banana, technically. But considering it was a very silly little free Steam download, it probably should be exempt. So Tales of Kenzera: Zau is going to have to take this one. The game seemed fine until a game breaking bug meant I couldn’t get past what was basically still the intro. Twice. So I gave up.
Most anticipated game of 2025: It’s kind of hard to answer this because I actually have no idea what will actually come out next year and what will instead be delayed forever. The most obvious answer is GTA 6 though. Hopefully it’s more GTA 5 and less GTA 4. But if Subnautica 2 comes out this year and has co op as has been reported, that could also be a huge contender.

Every 2024 game I played, chronologically:

Legendary Tales (PSVR2)
Pacific Drive (PS5)
Animal Well (PS5)
Rainbow Reactor (PSVR2)
Balatro (PC)
Banana (PC)
Leap Year (PC)
Stilt (PSVR2)
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (PC)
Arcade Paradise VR (PSVR2)
7 Days to Die (PC)
Rum & Gun (PC)
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (PS5)
Core Keeper (PC)
Tactical Breach Wizards (PC)
No Case Should Remain Unsolved (PC)
Astrobot (PS5)
The Plucky Squire (PS5)
Until Then (PC)
Max Mustard (PSVR2)
Cup Heroes (Android)
Metro Awakening (PSVR2)
Mouthwashing (PC)
Songs Of Conquest (PC)
WWE 2K24 (PS5)
Trombone Champ Unflattened (PSVR2)
Thank Goodness You’re Here (PC)
Bang Average Football (PC)
Black Myth: Wukong (PS5)
Escape Memoirs: Safe House (PC)