Despite 2023 being the big year for games, with the critically acclaimed 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 and the critically critiqued 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starfield, I actually played a lot more games this year than I did last. Including some of my backlog, so if I could put 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2 here I would, but I was late to ꦇthe party, so… DLC was pretty good, though.

There are still games I haven’t played yet as well that you might notice are missing, like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metaphor: ReFantazio and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but I’m just a man and there are only seven days in👍 a week, 24 h♌ours in a day, so I doubt anyone has even played those yet tbh.

Now as amazing as these games I'm about to talk about are, there are some more picks you should check out from the oth𝔍er awesome staff here at TheGamer. But, like🐭, these are the ones that matter though. I promise.

Honorable Mentions

10 Thank Goodness You’re H𒐪ere

If you’re looking for the most accurate depiction of the UK in any form of media, then look no further. Right down to council tax pestering, wheelie bin bouts, and morning pub-goers, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Thank Goodness You’re Here represents everything I’m not that proud to be. But damn, this is enter⛄taining.

Despite only being a couple of hours of my whole year, it was a couple o🦄f hours I remember, thanks to the dry humour, long-running jokes, and continuous detail as you potter about this small countꦗryside town. Thank goodness you’re here, Thank Goodness You’re Here.

9 Bloomtown: A Differen👍t Story

I know♉🐓 it can be lazy to describe a game by listing off similar games, but 1. I am lazy, and 2. Hear me out.

What if Person💮a, but Stranger Things, but Disco Elysium, but Earthbo♛und? Yeah, that’s Bloomtown. Play it.

8 Pacific Drive ﷽ 🐟

In this game,ꦕ you drive. And you survive. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Patch up and upgrade your strange, supernatural station wagon, and go out into the strange, supernatural exclusion zone to find a way out. It’s relatively simple in premise, but with plenty of mystery, satisfying car tinkerin🎶g mechanics, and some truly creepy otherworldly events,ꦯ it’s one that stuck with me since the early months of the year.

7 𒅌 Star Trucker 🎀

Oജh, look, another g💙ame about driving and surviving. Only this time the survival is more about capitalism, the economy, and… the vacuum of space, I suppose.

What if Truck Simulator, but space? Yeah, I’m still lazy, but that’s exactly what this game is. Manage your truck in every tedious, meticulous wa🀅y, set out on long-hauling inter-planetary jobs, and then realise there’s a problem with your grav drive when the cargo floats into the back of your head.

6 Tiny Glade 🔥

This is the most relaxed I’ve felt all year.

5 ꦺ Helldivers 2 😼

This is t♛he most unrelaxed I’ve felt all year. For Democr💃acy!

4 Balatro

Okay, so I hadn’t actually played Balatro until last week when I was in a hotel in Paris with my Steam Deck. “I’ll finally take a look then,” I thought. Cut to me sitting in the airport spending a good 15 minutes with a calculator open trying to find the one hand that could keep my hours-long Ante𓃲 7 run going.

And I did. A🍰nd then I lost the next round. Good game.

3 Astro Bot

“Back in my day, video games were-” forget your day, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Astro Bot 🐻is here. This video game sure is a video game, in ꧂all the best ways.

Just good levels, things to collect, enemies to punch and jump on, and a beautiful homage to PlayStation’s history. The only bad thing about Astro Bot is that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it r☂eminds me of all the🐭 dead PlayStation series that will never see the light of day again.

2 🐬 Indiana Jones And 🍌The Great Circle

Recency bias? No. Maybe. Shut up.

But turns out, this is actually one of the best games I’ve played this year. It masterfully does justice in honouring the adventure and charm of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Indiana Jones, and creates an intricate, detailed experie🌺nce on both the grand scale, but also theꦑ smaller moments.

Every time I stop playing this game, I can’t help but find myself thinking about it, excited to get ♏back into the action. And I mean, the amount of things you can pick up and smack Nazis with? That alone is worthy of this position. MachineGames really has a niche, huh?

1 Dragon’s Dogma 2🎐 🧔

Tada, the game with barely any story!

The sense of adventure I got from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon’s Dogma 2 was undeniably unparalleled, with only Indiana Jones coming close. From the misty marshes, to the forests of the elves, to the hidden mountaintop riddles of the Sphinx, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was an adventure I will remember, standing tall above my love for the original game, and playing off those classic fantasy feelings🌞 of Tolkien and ancient mythology.

The amount of moments I can recall fondly, the creative workarounds it let me do, the pure scale of a world trul🐲y fit for getting lost in, my love for this game has not dulled all these months later, and to me, it’s a standout of 2024 that deserves praise.