2024 was a great year for video games. Tons of interesting sequels, standalone games, indie game and other new titles came out and a bunch were extremely polished and popular. Let’s take a look at the top categories:
Game of the Year
Astro Bot (Team Asobi/SIE)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)
For game of the year, the top runners are Astrobot, and super polished 3D platformer, Balatro, a poker roguelike game, and Black Myth: Wukong, an extremely difficult RPG. I’m predicting that Astrobot is going to win, as GameCritic critics gave it a 94% rating, which is super high.
Best Ongoing Game
Destiny 2 (Bungie/SIE)
Diablo IV (Blizzard/Xbox)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/SIE)
In the Best Ongoing Game category, the top runner is Destiny 2, a mythic fantasy shooter game, Diablo 4, an online MMO dungeon crawler, and Final Fantasy XIV, a newer entry to the Final Fantasy RPG. Destiny 2 has a good chance of winning, but look out for Fortnite or Helldivers 2 to come from behind as dark horse candidates.
Best Action Game
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/SIE)
Stellar Blade (Shift Up/SIE)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment)
In the Best Action Game category Black Myth: Wukong, a Soulslike game, leads the pack. Next up the the newest entry in the COD (Call of Duty) series, Black Ops 6, an FPS action game. In third is Helldivers two, a bugs battling third person shooter similar to the Starship Troopers universe. Black Myth is the odds on favorite, but the COD entry has a good chance, and critics should watch out for Warhammer 40k to come from behind.
Best Multiplayer Game
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Helldivers 2 (Arrow Game Studios/SIE)
Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Cube/Nintendo)
Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment)
Finally, in the best Multiplayer category, Black Ops 6, and Helldivers 2 make another appearance. The game currently in third is the newest Mario Party, a staple of Nintendo family friendly party games. If the critics have good taste, Helldivers should win, because Black Ops 6 is more or less the exact same game as other recent COD games, but the top two games should leave the others in the dust.
