We're now at the halfway point for 2024. This has not been a great year of gaming for me so far. I'm looking at what I've played and what I'd like to get through and while I've had fun there hasn't been a lot that was special to me, and there's really nothing I'm looking forward to on the level of a Tears of the Kingdom or a Spider-Man 2. Of course there's stuff I want to play (like the new Zelda game) and I'm sure there's stuff that will surprise me as well, but 2024 may not end up as a favorite year for me. You can't have peaks without valleys I guess.

I also have not played a lot of AAA or even AA games released this year. Part of that is price, and part of it is that it's been a very weird year in that space, with some genres vastly overrepresented and others almost completely dry.

Below is my ranking so far through the year. As usual I'm only including games released in 2024 that I've finished playing (even if I didn't get to the end) so there are plenty of games that I played that are not included because they released prior years, and there are some games that are in progress but I'm not ready to rank yet. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth I put about 20 hours into and I had to stop playing for reasons that didn't really have to do with the game, and when I pick that back up I'm confident it will be a top 5 for me.

11) A Little to the Left (Uncompleted)

A puzzle game about organizing various spaces like a bookshelf or a toolbox.

I hate this game. HATE IT. I loved Unpacking and I thought this would provide similar levels of tidying enjoyment, but it's far too persnickety in its demands of how you place stuff, to the point where I think one puzzle may be bugged because I looked at the hint and matched it and it still didn't work. Far too often it feels like "figure out what the developer was thinking: the game" and when that relates to tidying it feels like you have an anal retentive jerk standing over your shoulder whining "that's not where it goes" based on their stupid organizational headcanon. Awful, terrible, the developers should feel bad about what they made. Nice art, though.

10) Skull And Bones

A massively multiplayer pirate open world game.

I struggled where to put this one. There were times when I enjoyed myself, and there's some genuinely good art and other elements. On the other hand I hated the story, and it was ultimately an empty experience. Then there were the technical issues like multiple hard crashes that required me to reset my Xbox. Ultimately while I don't think I hate this game I think my overall experience was pretty negative. The whole here is definitely less than the sum of its parts.

9) Little Kitty, Big CIty

An adventure/exploration game about a cat that falls from a high rise and has to find its way back up in a small Japanese neighborhood.

Not a bad game. Not a very good one either. Cute graphics, some funny dialog, clunky controls, some frustrating objectives. It's hard to find too many glaring faults with this one but it's also hard to find a lot of highlights. It's kind of a pleasant, low key, experience without a ton to offer.

8) Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

A 2D action game about robbing a bank in a wacky vegetable world

This game is okay, but the semi-roguelite structure really bogs it down with repetition. The absurdist humor is fine, the shooting is fine, some of the boss fights are actually kind of good. On the other hand having to constantly exit and re-enter the bank just gets annoying after a little while and there's not actually all that much to buy. It's not a bad game but it's not very memorable either.

7) Penny's Big Breakaway

A 3D platformer by the Sonic Mania team

I really wanted to love this one and instead I just kind of liked it. It looks fantastic, sounds even better, and has unique level design for a modern 3D platformer, more 3D Sonic than collectathon. Unfortunately inconsistent controls and a little bit of monotony in design sour the experience. It's a decent time but neither addictive nor transcendent. I'd love to play a better sequel.

6) Tales of Kenzera: ZAU

A metroidvania with a traditional African cultural flavor

This game is pretty good. It feels good to control, looks great, sounds great, and has a fine story. Level design is just okay, though, with a lot of empty areas and not a lot of reason to revisit past areas, which isn't great for a metroidvania game. Good, not great, a little bit flawed.

5) Helldivers II

Multiplayer Starship Troopers third person shooter

I got into this one more than most multiplayer games in recent years, after picking it up because a friend wanted to play it (we played like twice.) It's fun to run around killing bugs and calling down air strikes but the charm eventually wore off for me because it's so repetitive. Like with most multiplayer stuff I'd rather this just be a co-op campaign but at least the endless multiplayer structure fits with its themes of foreverwar and it's not very frustrating because it can be pretty funny when your teammates kill you. I'll probably go back to this before the end of the year.

4) Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

A modern take on the CDI Zelda formula

I liked this game more than I had any reason to. It intentionally doesn't play that great, because it's copying old games that don't play that great, but I had a lot of fun with it regardless. The humor's great, the progression was kind of addictive, and I just liked zoning out and going on a simple, easy, adventure in a wacky world. This is hard to recommend to others because you need to be the right kind of crazy, but I had a really good time with it.

3) Ultros

A very strange metroidvania with a bizarre story and gardening elements

This game's psychadelic look is spectacular. It plays well, but more importantly it approaches the genre differently than any other game I can remember. The way you interact with the environment is unique, and that makes it fun and memorable. A little bit of jank and a lot of lack of direction keep this from being a truly spectacular experience, but it's fun, challenging, and memorable. Recommended.

2) Botany Manor

An adventure puzzle game about an old botanist exploring her manor

There's some recency bias here, but I also really enjoyed this one. It has a wonderful, cheery, look, some decent puzzles, and some good environmental storytelling. It doesn't do anything spectacular but it executes what it sets out to do almost perfectly, though I do have a couple issues with the design (chiefly that you don't have a clue notebook so you have to go back to look at stuff in other rooms.) I doubt it will be this high at the end of the year, but I very much enjoyed it.

1) Balatro

A playing card/poker based deck builder roguelite

This is the only game I've played this year that I've genuinely loved. I'm not sure if it's better than Monster Train but it's on par, and I absolutely adore Monster Train. A perfectly designed deckbuilder that you can break wide open in all kinds of fun ways, full of cool stuff to unlock and truly busted interactions. I will be playing this for years to come and I would not be surprised if it ends up as my actual game of the year.

So that's my list. A lot of games I had a decent time with, only one I really loved. Hopefully by the end of the year this list gets a bit more topheavy. As I've said I think Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will make its way up there and there are some other candidates, so I guess we'll have to see.