My favorite games of 2024

[@antispiral2705]

I love that game music is getting more and more attention as the years go bye, we are looking into older games and seeing that they have some absolutely talented composers and beautiful music

[@hissey5581]

The highlight of my 2024 in games was playing through the Trails series. I've completed the Sky trilogy and am about to finish Azure. Seriously amazing games when you get to the meat, I'm super loving them

[@秋分-d8i]

For me FF7 rebirth, it has the best storytelling and shows it in detail, which many people complaining about that didn't really get the idea.

[@jauari6776]

EYYYY GUILD WARS MENTIONED I LOVE YOU MARCO great video:D

[@Inphenitee]

Press Garden Zone Act 2 still a VIBE

[@ShioKoori]

I like how I keep seeing, and it honestly includes me, people say: "one of my best decisions this year was to come back to WuWa." Same as you I kinda thought it wasnt great when it came out, so dropped it. I saw the shorekeeper trailer and was like "man she is beautiful! and the music on the trailer as well!" so I came back, binged the entire story and have been active since then. Kuro just shows that it cares enough about the games to constantly listen to player feedback and improve. And while I hate the term "xy-killer" and in this case "genshin-killer" and dont subscribe to the idea, I would still say that in terms of just reaction to community feedback and such, and some other areas, it definitely has it beat. And that is coming from someone that is a huge mihoyo fan.

[@brazilanubis3]

Marco, thanks for reminding me Relink was a thing. It’s 50% off at the Winter Steam sale :)

[@mitralingreyman5835]

My favorite game of this year (and probably all time) is Arknights. It is a very niche game, an alternative history, light novel, tower defense, resource management game. And I love that niche. The thing that I like the most in it is the story. It is a love letter to humanitarianism. Witnessing how this massive world unfolds, and its deep history. From the Great Sargon and its Shahansha, to the tundra of Ursus and Sami, from the silent Iberia to the falling Aegir, from the strife of Bolivar to the rural villages of Kazimierz. And everywhere there are people trying to live. Arknights is a reflection of our own world. There is ever present war and strife, hatred and misery, oppression and small mindedness. There are people who don't get to live happily ever after. And yet the flame of hope burning inside humans will not go out. It will come with us on Tomorrow's Ark.

[@mitralingreyman5835]

P.S. Like any other game there are flaws in Arknights, and I feel it is great for oneself to point them out, especially if it's your favorite game. For me the biggest draw to Arknights is the story, so I'll mainly criticize that. There are some things in it that depend on taste, and also some faults in it that are universal. - The writing is more plot driven than character driven. That doesn't mean its characters are flat, but there is less time spent with them. Personally I love plot driven stories, and get bored of character driven stories quite fast. The saying "Hook them with the characters, keep them with the plot." applies to me exactly. And I don't subscribe to the opinion that only character driven stories deserve to be called art, and plot driven stories are inherently worse. - The wordiness, or "overwriting" problem. For me, as I love that style of writing, it is a positive. How? It makes me more immersed in the world, just from the sheer amount of words I read, for example. Some people like more short and concise writing. - Pacing issues, especially early chapters and events. This is a more universally accepted criticism. - Character d*aths. Yep, this is a problem because it's hard to k*ll off a character that people pull for. - Presentation. The writing relies on dialogue 90% of the time to present its story. This criticism is more neutral to me as it doesn't take away from my experience, but it doesn't add much either.

[@mitralingreyman5835]

P.P.S. Another gray area for people is the gacha. Gacha mechanics can be viewed positively or negatively, differing in every person. Positive - Gacha is a part of the Resource Management aspect of the game. Planning pulls, pity and gold certificate shop rotations (no money spent) adds to the strategic aspect of the game. This applies to people that don't give in to FOMO too much or at all. Negative - Gacha is inherently predatory. It works off your fear of missing out to make you impulsively spend money at this instant, overwriting the long term planning part of the brain. If you easily give in to FOMO, please DO NOT play gacha games. My personal spending in Arknights is the monthly card. I treat it like a subscription fee for my favorite MMO (although it is cheaper than any MMO subscription).

[@runato4269]

I got back into my teenage-hood game that I play on and off in Mabinogi and found new friends for that so now it's keeping the now group-oriented experience alive for me. Zenless Zone Zero has definitely been a major highlight of this past half year whenever I got deep into it. As with most games I take weeks to months break and move on but the musical experience of specific chapters, their maps and their character designs are great. Also love the new chapter even if some EN VAs are missing. The finale of Penacony in HSR was top tier, emotional and I know Marco said he'd check out the Septimus theme...but damn does that whole fight hit different with context for the first time Hoyo doesn't really miss for me, tho that might be a bias from watching them grow as a early HI3 player

[@bastiangugu4083]

All my great gaming experiences this year were smaller, older games. And all had great soundtracks too. 'Opus: Echo of Starsong', 'Dordogne' 'Lost Words Beyond the Page', 'Planet of Lana', 'Jusant' and 'A short Hike'.

[@camper5002]

Totally agree on Stellar Blade music. Finished it 3 times a long time ago. Still music and vocals keep replaying in my head😅

[@pyopyonyo3222]

My highlights of the year were Wukong, ZZZ, and Kuro no Kiseki. As a JRPG fan I'm still in awe how good Chines game actually are and am looking forward to what they release next year. Happy gaming everyone.

[@MarcoMeatball]

I need to play kuro no kiseki

[@ivandesiigner]

Oh man I really love Indiana Jones, I was like at first when I heard about the game that they would go for the easy sell like just making an Uncharted game but with Indiana Jones paint on top but I was wrong and surprisingly so I was more awestruck to know that this game feels more like an immersive sim with some dna from the Chronicles Of Riddick game (which was developed by the devs working now at MachineGames so you can see the dna right away), I love immersive sims games and Chronicles of Riddick was like the best movie game to ever come out back in 2004 I played that game a lot in my computer back then and now I'm taking my time with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle checking out everything single thing in the game.

[@ShadQuakeFix]

Black Myth Wukong was truly an experience... Reminds me of Clive's journey in FF.

[@hieioni3354]

Best of the year (2024) for me are Palworld, EDF 6 and Ultrakill.

[@flexcat]

Who klnew. 2024 would be a year where I enjoyed Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and UFO 50 for than FFVII Rebirth.

[@iDEATH]

I was playing a lot of long term games, for lack of a better way to put it, so I actually didn't play too much new this year. Got back to Warframe in early Dec 2023, after a 4 year break (waiting for cross-save to get my old Xbone account back, but on PC), and that's been amazing. I haven't had much time this week to get into 1999, but man, what's there...and some of it is great music (I think it was your Warframe music stuff that first brought me here)! Also, the "Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader" cRPG has been a big thing, off and on. If you like cRPGs it's a good one, and a must for anyone into 40k. I think the best new game for me this year has actually been Wuthering Waves. I love open world games because I love to explore them, and it did that, plus the combat is really fun. That's what got me to stick it out the first few months, and Kuro has only been making it better with each update. Man, 2.0 is looking very exciting! I can hardly wait. I've got to give Girls Frontline 2 an honourable mention. It's only freshly released globally, but it's a pretty sharp little gacha with some decent turn-based tactics. I'm an OG X-Com fan, and that stuff still tickles me, so combine it with waifus and how can I say no? I wish I could have played Stellar Blade. No PS5. Here's to hoping for a good PC port in 2025!

[@MarcoMeatball]

I’m enjoying glf2 as well! We have similar interests!

[@iDEATH]

@@MarcoMeatball It would seem so! 😀

[@adeks1261]

My game of the year (and probably of all time) is I wani hug that gator. It was a bald move for me to play because I never played a VN and it had furry characters (technically they are not). I was stepping out of my comfort zone. I was moved for the first time very deeply. It made me reflect about my current life, my future and relationships. On the internet I saw that I am not alone in how the game affects people. I laughed and almost made me cry. A GAME ABOUT GATOR GIRL IN WHEELCHAIR. It changed me. I wish that more games could impact our lives in a meaningful way.

[@barrickpateman8084]

My fav vn this year was grisaia as a first timer . I wept i laughed and i really enjoyed it

[@Uhcip]

Anthropomorphic characters have been there since the start of videogames

[@sanicmain2922]

I usually buy games for the music so this year I went through doom eternal, sonic, metaphor, persona 3 reload and 5 royal. But the games that really hit me were the ace attorney trilogy (first three games) as I enjoyed it so much and loved the music but I was left feeling empty when it was over. Meanwhile being a longtime sonic fan the ending of shadows campaign in generations made me tear up. Hope everyone reading this has a great Christmas and new years!

[@Uhcip]

I wanted to like Indie more but the second half felt significantly less polished and the gameplay never really evolves. It is a good movie IP game but I don't think id have it in the top 10 for the year. Silent Hill 2 is great and should have had more recognition in general.

[@gernanite911]

hello mr meatball i would like you to review Art Without Unity by Orion (Sagittarius Aystar), the remastered version.