Games of the Year
I didn't play many games that released in 2024, but I did play a few! According to Steam, the majority of my play time this year was in new releases, despite 75% of the games I played having come out before this year. This was mostly due to the new releases being idle or endless multiplayer games instead of the primarily single player story driven games I spent the rest of my time on. With all that said:
2024 releases I played
Webfishing
This game contributed to many late nights for me, and it's definitely one of the games where the social aspect is much more important than the gameplay itself. I don't often stay in group Discord calls late into the night (or any time of day), and I've don't think I've ever hopped into a game lobby before because someone posted a code on social media. Webfishing was the perfect excuse to do both of those things, and I'm very glad for it. The actual gameplay itself is really enjoyable for me too! I managed to 100% my normal journal, a lot of the final push for that was spent just in a private world, making sure I was maximizing the right percentages and keeping a constant eye out for rain clouds. The completionist/masochist in me still wants to finish the other qualities, but it being almost entirely luck based can get very tiring. I wish people were still playing this more because I'd love to keep working towards catching everything, but there are much more appealing things to play solo. Maybe a new update can be the push that revives it in my circles!
Another aspect with Webfishing that I luckily had minimal interaction with was the "hackers" that would join games and cause mischief. The original codes with five characters were short enough that brute forcing them was feasible for people to join games and post the IP address of the host or maybe spam slurs in the chat box. I don't believe that anything more ever happened with this, but you'll see people online talking about hackers breaking save files, stealing steam accounts, and more. Adding one more character to the game codes and friend only lobbies definitely helped cut down on instances of this happening, but so did the natural decline in playerbase. There's only so much that you can reasonably expect out of what started as a game jam project in terms of security and threat modeling, so I don't really fault lamedeveloper too much. There's something to be written about Webfishing and how communities respond to perceived hacking risks, or maybe about the balance between rootkit level anticheat and nearly absent anticheat.
Helldivers 2
The other big multiplayer game I played this year, this one I actually found myself playing almost entirely through match making rather than with folks I already knew on Discord servers. This really came out of left field but was a ton of fun, it's super impressive what Arrowhead was able to pull off. I feel that they made some missteps with the community management and balancing (the two often go hand in hand). The monetization is very reasonable for a game that sells for under $60, even if I wish new weapons and boosters were slightly more accessible. Stratagems being completely unrelated to Warbonds is the right choice, and given that implementation I am more ok with Warbonds and monetization as implemented.
All that said, I stopped playing the game in May and don't see myself picking it back up, not even with the recent major update. The move Sony pulled around the PSN requirement and the subsequent region lock is absurd. Like Pirate Software, I will not play this as long as the restrictions are still in place. While I can't say with confidence that I will apply the same to all Sony published games like Pirate Software has said, I will aim for that. I feel really bad for Arrowhead being in this position, since they are most likely getting hit harder than anyone else. I hope Sony eventually feels enough pain from this that they relent on the absurd region locks.
Rusty's Retirement
This game is the main reason most my Steam playtime this year was in new releases, it alone counts for 38% of my playtime this year. Being an idle game those hours of course look really different than the other games. A lot of the time the game was just in the background while I worked on chores around the house or watched a video, checking in every ten minutes or so. Plenty of the playtime is also from just forgetting to turn it off when I went out or fell asleep, whoops.
Discussions of play time aside, I love this game! I 100%ed it earlier this year (not something I do frequently), and got back to 100% within 24 hours of downloading the major winter update. Min-maxing your farm is almost certainly not how the game is "meant" to be played, but it's very much in the realm of possibility, and something I enjoyed doing. If/when I get a second monitor I'd love to make a new save where I don't focus on min-maxing and instead just have Rusty & co sit off to the side in a much more relaxed farm. If there are more updates like the winter update coming in the future I'm sure I'll be back to min-maxing, the quality of life and feature improvements were really nice to see in such a small game.
Shapez 2
Shapez 2 is still in early access, but I'm counting it for this. I'm a big fan of factory games in general, especially the first Shapez. I think the focus on purely building a factory instead of also resource gathering, base defense, etc. is great a really nice implementation. Shapez 2 keeps that same design, but expands on it and adds a couple layers to bring it into the third dimension. I do think that some of the new features aren't up my alley quite as much, and I find myself struggling with the 3D space and general layout of the game from time to time. That said, I'm a fan of how tobspr (the developer) is approaching early access, and I think there's a good possibility of a lot of these sticking points being fixed or improved. Rather than having a set roadmap of what features and changes will be made before release, they have been listening to community feedback and adjusting accordingly, on top of implementing expected improvements like optimizations. The changes between the demo, v0.0.8, and v0.0.9 have contained solid improvements to aspects of gameplay and general quality of life. I'd love to see more games develop this way, and I'm really glad that Shapez has a community that enables this approach.
2024 releases I missed
Balatro
A big one for this year, it was even nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards! I don't know how much I'd like this one, but enough of my friends and people I follow online have been sucked in by it and recommended it that I wanna give it a shot. This especially seems like a no brainer if I get a Steam deck or similar. We'll see what the year has in store!
1000xRESIST
I don't know anything about this game, and I want to keep it that way! I just know it's been recommended extensively, it looks cool, and I want to try it out. Steam says it's similar to Outer Wilds which is a big draw all on its own.
Neva
I absolutely loved GRIS, by the same team (Nomada Studio), and Neva looks to be a very similar project by them. The art and music are gorgeous, and the storytelling is hopefully akin to GRIS. More than others on the list this is a game I want to be in the right head space and physical space for, to make sure I can appreciate the message and the aesthetic of it properly.
Nine Sols
Another game I don't know much about and want to keep that way! Looks good, lots of recommendations and positive reviews.
What I'm looking forward to in 2025
Switch 2
Not a game, but I am looking forward to the Switch 2! I hope it's not just a specs bump to the Switch and does bring some more to the table in terms of the controllers or some other aspect (how about in the UX?). The leaks so far indicating it might be more powerful when docked sound promising, and I am very glad that it will be reverse compatible. I really do feel that some of the more recent Switch games that have been having performance issues, like LoZ: Echoes of Wisdom, were intended to be released on the Switch 2 but got pushed up for the holidays or something. How soon (or if) I get this will ultimately depend on what games are available. I am generally a fan of Nintendo's work (for better or worse), but not so much so that I'm going to buy a new system without games I want just to play what I already have with more powerful hardware. Without new games I know I'll play, that money would be better spent on a Steam deck so I can take my existing library on the go.
Wanderstop
This looks like a really interesting take on the cozy games genre, with more emphasis and exploration of burnout and hopelessness. This definitely falls in a theme with other games I have liked, and I plan to write about that more (maybe after I play Wanderstop!). I also really like tea and the process of making it, but it's safe to say that the tea isn't the biggest draw for me.
Monster Hunter Wilds
This definitely doesn't keep that same theme, but I've loved the Monster Hunter games since Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii. MH World was less enjoyable for me, I think mostly due to the growing pains of such a big shift in the usual formula. I think, or at least certainly hope, that MH Wilds is far enough into this new system that those growing pains have been smoothed out.