Top 10 games I played in 2024

Just a note that not all of these games necessarily launched in 2024. Most of them did, but this is just the highlights of what I played in 2024. I technically started playing some of them at the very tail-end of 2023, but since ~90% of my time spent playing them was during this year, I am counting them.

It's my list, I can do what I want!

Honourable Mentions:

Pillars of Eternity, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, OlliOlli World, Enshrouded

10. Rogue Flight [released 2024, PC]

This gem was a discovery that I came across at EGX in October of this year. It's a short, yet action-packed little game produced by indie studio Truant Pixel, and it's a love-letter to old school Shoot 'Em Ups, as well as 80s and 90s anime, with a sprinkling of Starfox in there for good measure. As well as the main campaign which includes branching paths and unlockables to encourage replayability, there is a "rogue" mode where you are given random weapons and play in an increasingly difficult survival gauntlet. Fast-paced, beautifully-presented and just pure fun - I'd recommend Rogue Flight to anyone with even a passing interest in any of the game's aformentioned inspirations. It oozes style, and it's the perfect game to whack on a pair of headphones for and just get into the zone and fully immerse yourself in.

9. Elden Ring [released 2022, PC]

I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks this, but I... actually kind of hate the combat in FromSoftware games. You can tell me to "git gud", but I simply cannot seem to crack into whatever it is that people are enjoying when they talk about how good the combat is in Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring. It all feels like some exciting, exclusive club that I am not part of. I'm actually at a loss as to how I ever manage to defeat any of the bosses - it always feels like I relied a lot more on luck than skill, desperately thrashing my way through battles and dying...a lot, and only winning by a whisker when I ever did. Despite all of this, Elden Ring is still on my list simply because of how incredible its world design and atmosphere is, and what a joy it is to just...wander. By far my favourite thing about the original Dark Souls was discovering the secrets and oddities sprinkled around its dark, gothic and often hopelessly depressing world, so to be able to do that on an even larger scale with Elden Ring is a lot of fun. I'm nowhere near completing the game, but I've had a lot of fun simply exploring and making my way across the Lands Between. It's a prime example of a creative vision that has been delivered to the highest standard, without compromise or corporate greed getting in the way. Elden Ring stands alongside the likes of Breath of the Wild, The Witcher III and Baldur's Gate III as examples of "triple A" games done right, uncompromised by microtransactions, rushed development or corporate greed, and that alone is worth celebrating in 2024. I'd certainly be ranking this higher if I actually had any idea what I was doing with the combat, but I think I have come to accept that it just isn't for me, which is a shame when I love the rest of what it has to offer.

8. Pizza Tower [released 2024, Switch]

Pizza Tower is absolutely nuts. Clearly, the developers over at Tour De Pizza were sick of waiting for a new Warioland game, so they decided to do it themselves in all but name. The main character, Peppino, is essentially a hyper-exaggerated version of Wario, and this is true of the game itself; everything about the game from its expressive and intense visuals and its manic yet groovy soundtrack to the wacky and wild gameplay is the essence of Warioland - in particular, Warioland 4 - cranked up to 11. In fact, I'd say that it's like Warioland 4 had a baby with Sonic - that's the level of speed and intensity that you're often dealing with. It can be quite challenging, but not unfairly so. The controls definitely take some getting used to - the game relies heavily on speed, and I sometimes found myself fumbling to perform the right move in time before smashing into an enemy or wall, but it's a learning curve and I have found myself enjoying it more as I get the hang of the controls. In a world with such an abundance of 2D platformers, Pizza Tower manages to stand out with its absurd, over-the-top presentation and incredibly fast pace.

7. Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds [released 2024, PC]

I'm a fairly casual Guild Wars player - I dip in every now and then for a few months to check out new updates and chip away at achievements. I don't play competitively, and I don't really keep up to date with the latest metabuilds or raids. I really appreciate Arenanet's "horizontal progression" approach - every time new armour or new abilities are available, they're not definitively better than any other high-level gear - instead, supporting different playstyles. I was pleased, then, to hear that Arenanet was releasing another smaller scale expansion similar in scale to last year's Secrets of the Obscure that continues to expand this horiontal progression. Janthir Wilds, though, is even more up my street. It's set in an area of the world map which we've not explored before, essentially covering a region of the coast with a large river meeting the sea. It's populated by a race of cute bear people called the Kodan, and their fishing villages adorn the beautiful new landscapes. Everything new in this expansion gels really well with the setting, from the new fishing mechanics to the player homestead feature, finally allowing players to design and customise their own homes in-game. There is the new spear weapon which is available for all classes, as well as the warclaw mount which has a series of abilities that been designed specifically for traversing the new maps. I've not yet finished the main quest, but I've love my time in these new areas and it's definitely my favourite expansion since 2017's Path of Fire.

6. Tiny Glade [released 2024, PC]

Tiny Glade is a quaint, cosy little builder with absolutely no goals whatsoever. No story, no campaign, no heart-pounding combat - just chilled out building. It's a slow-paced relaxing affair, with intuitive controls that allow you to simply let your creativity flow. It's the perfect "zen" game, akin to meditation to me. I have forever used games with level creators or creative modes to simply unwind, and Tiny Glade is another excellent entry in that kind of genre to me. It allows you to just enjoy yourself with no objectives, taking your time and creating something beautiful. The game is deceptively powerful, allowing players who know how to get the most out of the tools available to build incredibly impressive castles, villages and landscapes. To top it off, Tiny Glade has a great photo mode which allows you to alter the time of day, wander around in your creation, adjust the depth of field and more to capture the perfect shots of your creations. There's a nice little community that has formed around this game, and it's great to see what else people have managed to build.

5. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 [released 2024, PC]

Space Marine 2 knows exactly what it wants to be. It's not going to win any awards for gameplay innovation or storytelling, but it doesn't care. Space Marine 2 is the absolute epitome of the co-op shooter experience - grab two of your buddies and jump into a mission and face down swarms of thousands - and I really do mean thousands - of tyranids. The game is absolutely full of visually stunning vistas and landscapes, most of which are crawling with literal hordes of enemies that you'd swear are just part of the background scenery, until you see that they are heading directly for you. It's chock full of unlockables, including customisation options for your marine, and perk trees for each of the six classes and dozens of tweaks to your loadouts and weapons. The campaign and supplementary 'operations' missions aren't too long but there is more content planned, and I can see players replaying missions to grind away at unlockables, and to relive some of the spectacular set-pieces. It's an incredibly polished game, and it was compelling enough to convince me to head into a Warhammer store and purchase my first 40K miniature models...! I think in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay, Space Marine 2 might actually have been the most fun I've had this year gaming. Definitely one to enjoy in shorter bursts though, as there isn't an enormous amount of variety in the way that the game actually plays. Still, it's not trying to do anything more than what it says on the tin, and it does that very, very well.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom [released 2024, Switch]

This game's announcement was a complete surprise - after the long, long wait for last year's Tears of the Kingdom, I was fully expecting to wait at least another three or four years until the next entry in the Zelda series. But, it turns out that Nintendo had given Grezzo the go-ahead to work on their own new title. Grezzo had worked on several of the Zelda remakes, as well as the spin-off Triforce Heroes, so I think that they were a safe pair of hands at this point. Echoes of Wisdom is the first main game in the series which actually has you playing as the series' titular character, which was long overdue, but this actually ended up shaping the core of the game. The game is pretty much entirely built around the new "Echo" function, an ability that Zelda has, which allows you to create clones of objects or creatures around the world. It's a really intiuitive and creative system that sprinkles in some of that more open-ended Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom game design into the more traditional 2D top-down style. The result is a game that feels simultaneously familiar and fresh, with an eclectic mix of traditional puzzles and dungeons, alongside tools that actively encourage the player to "break" the game and do things that would have seemed unthinkable in previous entries in the series. It feels distinctly smaller and less "epic" than last year's Tears, but 2D and 3D Zelda games have always felt like very different beasts. It's a whole lot of fun, and it is really nice to see that Nintendo still has room for its more old-school approach to Zelda games. It often had me bobbing my head along to the wonderful soundtrack, and smiling as I realised that I could use a combination of echoes in a way that felt like I was cheating. In truth, the game is designed around that feeling, but knowing that doesn't take away from how it makes you feel. I was more than content with Tears being the last Zelda game on the Switch, but this was a very welcome surprise that didn't outstay its welcome - it took me around 20 hours to beat, and there are still a few sidequests and secrets to find, but I am relieved to have had a smaller Zelda title after the sheer size of the last two!

3. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle [released 2024, PC]

I'd had my eye on this game since its announcement simply because I'm an enormous Indiana Jones fan, but I will be honest and say that I wasn't too enthralled by the initial trailers for The Great Circle, and anyone who played games during the early '00s will know why I am wary about licensed tie-ins. But, it was being developed by Machine Games who are behind the brilliant Wolfenstein series, so I had hope. And that hope, it turns out, was not misplaced. Rather than going for a paint-by-numbers action adventure style in the same vein as games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted (which, ironically, were inspired by Indy), The Great Circle opts for a first-person game which is much more heavily-centred around exploration, stealth and discovering secrets. I think a lot of people expected the game to be a more straight-up action ordeal, but the game's approach is actually a lot more in-line with Indy's outings. He's just one man, he's always the scrappy underdog, and the game really makes you feel like you are using anything and everything you can get your hands on to make it through each encounter. Guns and ammo are scarce, so the bulk of combat forces you to rely on candlesticks, mops, batons, glass bottles - whatever you can find in your surroundings to get the drop on the fascists you're up against. The game is an absolutely beautiful love letter to the Indiana Jones franchise, full of callbacks and references to the films, but able to tell its own story and stand on its own two feet at the same time. I sat playing this for the first time with an enormous grin on my face - amazed at how well it fits into the universe of Indy, how well-crafted the game world is, and how enjoyable it is to play.

2. Animal Well [released 2024, PC]

Animal Well is not a particularly long game, but from the moment that I picked it up until the moment the credits rolled, I was hypnotised by it. I couldn't put it down. The passion project of solo developer Billy Basso, Animal Well is a marvel. It's a measly 32MB in size, and yet it carries with it more charm than many of its big-budget contemporaries. Its minimalist design, both in terms of visuals and sound, give it a deeply mysterious and strange atmosphere which I was mesmorised by the whole way through my journey. You play as a tiny ball-like creature with no special abilities beyond movement and jumping, and it's up to you to make use of items such as a frisbee, yo-yo, bubble wand and fireworks to navigate your way through the labyrinthian land of Animal Well. There's no conventional combat to speak of, and I think this is one of the things which sets it apart from other Metroidvania-style games. Your obstacles are a menagerie of animals - but most of them aren't really enemies per se - they're simply there going about their lives, and you must get past them, or coax them into helping you along your way. It's an incredibly charming and unique title with a number of very memorable set-pieces and brilliant puzzles, and I can't wait to replay this in a few years time when I'll have no doubt forgotten how to solve any of the game's puzzles and rediscover the magic all over again. It's a really special game with an atmosphere that feels almost dreamlike - it's hard to put into words, but for me it was the perfect game to stay up late for, sitting in the dark, and chip away at.

1. Baldur's Gate III [released 2023, PC]

Baldur's Gate III is one of those games that comes along perhaps once in a generation. It's so, so far ahead of the competition that there have been developers coming out and saying "don't expect this level of quality in our games". They're actually worried that the bar might have been raised too high because of how good Baldur's Gate III is. You can tell that Larian Studios gave this game their all - it feels like a game that was made with nothing but passion for CRPGs and the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Every single ounce of this game, from its presentation, its story, its mechanics, to its gameplay both in and out of combat, feels masterful. Right out of the gate there is an absolutely enormous variety in the way that you can approach the game, from 12 classes (and 46 subclasses!), 11 races, and 7 different pre-built unique origin characters to choose from. And then once you start playing the game, there are always at least two or three ways to resolve most situations, and these all end up branching off and creating divergent paths for you to take. Sure, it's not as open-ended as a real D&D campaign, but it's about as close as you'll get in a video game. I'm on my third playthrough of the game now with over 280 hours playtime and I am still discovering new dialgoue, new quests, new characters and new items that I simply didn't know about in my previous runthroughs. There are apparently over 140 hours of voiced dialogue in the game, and I believe it. The amount of variety and possible interactions is astounding.

Baldur's Gate III takes almost everything that players loved from Larian's previous game, Divinity: Original Sin II, and elevates it. The game's higher budget leaves it feeling more cinematic and polished than its spiritual predecessor, and it is an absolute joy to play, seamlessly blending exploration, character dialogue and charisma-based gameplay and tactical combat. I'm an absolute sucker for tactical turn-based combat games, and Baldur's Gate does a pretty damn good job of adapting the 5e D&D rules to the computer. It chops and changes minor things here and there, usually to the game's benefit, and allows for a lot of freedom in how you approach encounters, due to the vast variety of possible class, race and party member combinations available. On its default difficulty setting it's a little too easy at points, especially after the crushing difficulty of the aforementioned Original Sin II, but my playthrough on the game's higher Tactician difficulty has brought encounters more in-line with the level of challenge I was expecting. It's a masterpiece of a game that I have almost no complaints about beyond very minor nitpicks, and it has easily cemented itself as one of my favourite games of all time. There are still classes and races I've not played as, and with great co-op multiplayer and the modding scene exploding since Larian included a mod manager in the last update, I can see myself coming back to Baldur's Gate for at least another couple of adventures in Faerun yet. It's one of those rare games that ticks all boxes for me. Presentation, story, gameplay, replayability - it nails it all, almost flawlessly. This is a true 10/10 game for me.