It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Everyone is at home, warm and cozy, surrounded by loved ones and cold climates, and there’s a mountain of great video games waiting to be played. Despite rampant layoffs and harsh working conditions for many developers and game industry professionals, there was still a ton of great entertainment being released this year.

The staff at CNET spent our year traveling the globe previewing new software and hardware. We’ve now come together to write down what stood out the most to us and how we spent our free time.

Here is a top 10 list of games, unranked, except for a clear, overall Game of the Year winner. We’ve also included a handful of honorable mentions that we felt deserved recognition but didn’t quite make our main list. We’ll begin with those…

Honorable Mentions

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Sean Booker, Video Producer

I didn’t know what to expect when I first previewed The Great Circle back in August. After so many years of Uncharted games riffing on the Indiana Jones movies, it made sense that MachineGames would follow a similar format – I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, we got a first-person adventure game that veers closer to an immersive sim than high-action blockbuster. And I can’t stop playing it. I’m completing every objective, finding every relic and punching so, so many Nazis.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is immensely fun, from the funny and clever writing to the awesome performance from Troy Baker. Each new zone I enter is another extremely enjoyable sandbox to explore. I love sneaking my way around these intricately designed areas, finding hidden tombs, wearing disguises to get past guards, and photographing my journey to unlock more adventure points. And I say all this as a very passive fan of the movies.

Despite this high bar of quality, The Great Circle released very late in the year – in fact, its release date was the same day as our Game of the Year deliberations. At that time, only myself and a freelancer had spent any time with the game and not enough of the staff had any experience with the title. Despite this, I felt strongly enough that Indiana Jones deserved some recognition and slotted it into our honorable mentions.

Marvel Rivals – Adam Benjamin, Managing Editor

Last night I came home from a movie and played Marvel Rivals. After I finish work today, I’m going to play Marvel Rivals. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give is that this game is the first thing that has managed to pull me away from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game hasn’t even been out for a month, so hero balance and matchmaking aren’t exactly polished, but playing Rivals is still usually more fun than not playing Rivals. Much of that is due to the iconic heroes generally feeling like faithful and fun representations of their comic book counterparts, but the slick hero design and snappy gameplay also help.

I’m particularly impressed by the game’s ability to make its tank and support heroes (“vanguards” and “strategists” in the game’s terminology) so much fun to play. Whether I’m charging forward as Cap or Thor, shielding off damage as Doctor Strange, outdueling the Punisher as Mantis or gobbling up half the enemy team as Jeff the Land Shark, I find myself enjoying every role. 

Marvel Rivals missed our main list due to its very recent release and the dependency live-service games have on content roadmaps. The true test for Rivals will come next year: Can the game keep up with balancing demands, matchmaking needs and players’ thirst for new heroes? But its early days have been impressive and noteworthy, and I’m hoping the developers can keep that momentum going for years to come. 

Hades 2 – Lori Grunin, Senior Editor

It’s still in early access, but Hades 2 was my big addiction of 2024 – until that dopamine-drip Balatro knocked it out of my hands when I finally picked it up in October. Even in its unfinished state, with no achievements, no final boss or endgame narrative, no idea why it asks you to do some of the things it does, occasionally frustrating lag, no clue when it will officially launch and so on, I’ve played over 130 hours. (So sue me: I find taking a run up to Olympus before going to sleep calming.)  But those caveats are also my reasons for not nominating it for GOTY 2024.

There’s a lot of overlap between Hades 2 and the first game, with similar mechanics, characters and battles. For instance, battling the undead within buildings in the dead city of Ephyra feels identical to Zagreus battling through the Temple of Styx. 

But I find Hades 2 far more interesting – if probably easier – to play. It introduces spellcrafting, more diverse resource gathering, deckbuilding and animal allies. Plus, instead of a single region to more-or-less linearly fight your way through, in Hades 2 you have to fight your way down through the underworld as well as up to the top of Olympus. That makes a huge difference, because you can choose which direction to head at the start of a run, and makes it feel less like you’re rehashing the same routes ad infinitum. 

And while Chronos occasionally tosses you into Asphodel, one of the regions that hasn’t changed from the first game, you’re not there frequently or for long enough to dread it. Because I HATE ASPHODEL. The region requires trying to kill while not getting killed, constantly moving, and simultaneously playing The Floor Is Lava. 

Top 10

Astro Bot – Faith Chihil, Social Producer

When Game of the Year conversations started in the CNET bullpen, Astro Bot was the group’s first refrain, breathlessly repeated in hallowed tones. The Game Awards clearly agreed, crowning it Game of the Year on Thursday.

I was apprehensive at first. “The robot from the PSVR tutorial?” I thought. A similarly skeptical friend said his main critique was that it seemed like an overblown Sony ad: “Using the controller and console as visuals in the game just seems so uninspired.”

But thirty hours in, I’d argue the Sony-ness is intrinsic to what makes the game so charming. Astro Bot barrels wholeheartedly into the annals of Playstation’s history, making it a joy to discover each bot and match the reference, whether it’s a musical cue, a custom skin or a few words of flavor text. I found myself wanting to go back and play games just so I could better understand the references. Even the soundtrack has the nostalgic vibes of another classic PlayStation “collect little guys” game, Katamari Damacy, right down to its self-referential theme song.   

Astro Bot may have started arguably as Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s Clippy, but unlike the retired paperclip, his reign has no end in sight.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – Sarah Drolet, Writer I

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth isn’t just my personal game of the year – it’s also one of my new favorite games of all time. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous to see how the open world segments of Rebirth would play out, especially considering the entirety of Final Fantasy VII Remake had us confined within the walls of Midgar. But this game blew me away. From the gorgeous visuals, incredible orchestral renditions of the music from the original game, upgraded combat system and the overwhelming amount of content, this game had me hooked (for nearly 90 hours).

Playing through Rebirth almost feels like you’re on a really long road trip with a group of friends. It does a great job capturing the sometimes wild, wacky humor of the original, while still maintaining the drama and suspense of the more serious moments in the narrative. And the spotlight isn’t just on Cloud this time around. Each party member gets their own moments to shine throughout the game, with their own sidequests and story beats during the main questline. Tifa and Aerith in particular are at their best in Rebirth, and I loved seeing their friendship blossom throughout the course of the game. 

In terms of storytelling, Rebirth is more faithful to the original narrative than Remake but there are still some unexpected twists and turns to be found, and for the most part, I’m enjoying the new direction that Square Enix decided to take the story. If you’ve never played the original Final Fantasy VII, there’s never been a better time to get into the franchise.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Bridget Carey, Editor at Large

Never have I had such a good time defeating evil by stacking old beds and summoning sharks. Echoes of Wisdom isn’t your typical Zelda game, and yet it inspires nostalgia for something in the past – the ultimate echo of everything loved about the Zelda franchise, while feeling completely fresh. 

For the first time, our main playable hero is not the swordsman Link, but Princess Zelda herself. Now she is saving Link – and yes, she can swing a sword – but she’s mostly using a new ability in her battles: she can make copies of other elements and creatures in the world to do her bidding. 

Like a game programmer gone wild, you can spawn anything on a whim. It’s an incredibly creative approach to solving problems, which I’ve grown to love doing as a team with my kids on the couch, with everyone yelling out ways to solve dungeons when we’re stuck. What makes a great well-rounded game is something with a fun story and satisfying challenge, but not too hard for kids to join in. 

The series is 38 years old and continues to surprise and delight. Echoes of Wisdom is a great starter to the franchise with its classic overhead view and tilt-shifted focus (similar in visuals to the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening). But it also forces fans to think completely differently in how they get through dungeons and bosses. No two people will play it the same way. (Unless you also make beds appear everywhere. Then maybe we do play alike.)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard – David Katzmaier, Senior Director of Content

It’s been 15 years since the first time I played Dragon Age – the seminal Origins in 2009, which I loved – and a decade since I conquered the excellent Inquisition. Veilguard, despite the lame name, was worth the wait. It has everything I want in a sprawling fantasy RPG: rich character creation builds, versatile skill trees, world-spanning lore, scads of factions and regions, superb voice acting across multiple interesting (and romanceable) companions and consequential choices that actually affect the plot. 

One welcome addition is the game’s meta-feedback about important decisions, from “Emmrich approves” to “Taash explored their identity with Neve and Harding’s support.” I’m also here for the dumb jokes. In one mini-quest I helped a baby griffin and an animated skeleton butler troll the uptight Gray Warden. My dialogue choice was “squaaak!” 

Veilguard’s advantage over its predecessors, aside from graphics and quality-of-life improvements, is the combat. It reminds me of God of War, albeit more forgiving, and it beats any blend of action/strategy-lite I’ve played. Most fights I stick to real time, spamming last-second dodge-rolls and eyeing my cooldowns to program a lethal combo. But some challenge me enough to mash the shoulder pause button, where I can mix abilities, direct allies and select bosses or mobs at leisure, or just catch my breath. 

Of course I compare Veilguard to last year’s incredible Baldur’s Gate 3 and of course it falls short. BG3 is my favorite game ever, full stop, and I’ve been gaming since my local Minute Market got Tron. But Veilguard is still superb. It manages to evoke other all-timers from developer BioWare, like Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: KOTOR, while upping the adrenaline and staying true to the storied past of Thedas, the setting for the series. 30 hours in and I’m still stoked to progress with my glass cannon joke-slinging dude elf mage. And I’m already planning my second playthrough as a melee tough-talkin’ girl dwarf rogue.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree – David Lumb, Writer II

As I stepped into The Lands Beyond, I wondered what would make it worth $40 for a DLC. Galloping through fields of wheat spliced with phantom gravestones, I found an ethereal realm of grotesque monsters and ancient lore, a land of sorrow and history, all wrapped in the minimalist storytelling and tough challenge I’d come to expect from Elden Ring studio FromSoftware. Despite being an expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree is nearly an entire game in itself, delivering a massive world to explore and a litany of additions that can be brought back to enjoy in the original Elden Ring. Who doesn’t want more of 2022’s Game of the Year?

Granted, it takes some doing to access Shadow of the Erdtree, as players need to progress a ways into the base game before venturing in. The Tarnished player character follows demigod Miquella into a realm that’s the shadowy inverse of The Lands Between, encountering ten new major bosses, plenty of new enemies, over 100 additional weapons and even more combat skills. 

From castles to molten tunnels to ruins to yet another of the poison swamps that creator Hidetaka Miyazaki keeps putting in FromSoftware’s games, Shadow of the Erdtree has so much more to offer Elden Ring players that it’s easily worth the price of entry. And there’s plenty in the expansion to offer fans who love picking apart the lore. 

“There is the sort of a culture or a society of the Erdtree, but in addition, there are hints and easter eggs of ruins that predates a lot of that society and culture that you see,” Miyazaki told CNET at Summer Game Fest in June. Shadow of the Erdtree is more of what players want – that is, more of everything the original Elden Ring delivered – and serves as a satisfying bridge until the co-op survival spinoff, Elden Ring Nightreign, arrives in 2025.

Metaphor ReFantazio – Imad Khan, Senior Writer

As much as I roll my eyes at the story and setting of Metaphor ReFantazio, I can’t help but go back to its addictive RPG gameplay loop. It’s the best gameplay to come out of Atlus, yet. The systems are so well refined that you won’t find yourself trying to needlessly level up to handle the boss ahead of you. There’s balance and attention given to how players will experience this game. And limiting general RPG annoyances seemed to be high on the priority list.

For example, instead of having to enter random battles with weak, instant-kill enemies, you can instead just wack them as soon as you see them and get the necessary experience points. 

That said, the narrative of Metaphor ReFantazio is only middle school deep. Its commentaries on race, religion and caste seem to exist because they can. There isn’t much depth to the broader societal discrimination other than that it’s just there. Having anxiety-inducing enemy attacks doesn’t advance any understanding or give deeper insight on what the emotion is and what it does to us and the people around us. 

Despite Metaphor’s narrative inadequacies, the gameplay is worth enduring the young adult melodrama.

UFO 50 – Scott Stein, Principal Writer

There are games of the year, and then there are games that are 50 games. UFO 50 arrives like a mystery box: a strange invitation to a game compilation for a console that never existed. UFOSoft, and its developers, are a marvelous fiction made-real in a bundle of classics that are entirely new indie entities. As a lover of retro games, I’ve found myself treasuring collections like Atari 50, or those old NES, SNES and Genesis mini-consoles with the games baked in. UFO 50 delivers that nostalgic surprise but with games no one’s ever played…and the discovery of the rules, the secrets, the control schemes, those are all part of the journey.

I could name five games in UFO 50 that were among my favorite games of the year. With 50 to choose from, the options are daunting. I started browsing, game-surfing, bouncing around. Some of the games are even multiplayer, if you have a spare controller. UFO 50 is Steam-only for now, though putting this thing on a Nintendo Switch feels like the most necessary move ever.

I’ve been playing on a Steam Deck, and UFO 50 has made me love Steam Deck gaming more than anything ever has. I don’t expect you’ll love all the UFO 50 games, or even figure them all out. They can be extremely hard, obscure, and sometimes intentionally ugly. But I love all of it, and I feel wooed by this parallel universe game compilation. I’ve started following along to podcasts breaking down each game, and reading Reddit threads on game rankings, and wondering what the mysterious “Terminal” in the game does with codes I still haven’t found. 

Let go, fall down the UFO 50 rabbit hole, and be a kid again in a past you never lived in. I’m finding myself reconnecting with that strange joy I had with games when I owned an Atari 2600 and wondered what wonders each odd cartridge would bring.

Helldivers 2 – Tyler Graham, Associate Writer

Listen, this isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to spreading managed democracy across the universe. As a Helldivers veteran, I’ve done my fair share of top-down running, gunning, teamkilling and stratagem shotcalling throughout multiple galactic campaigns. It turns out that all you need to do to make one of the most entertaining co-op games of all time is take that winning formula and slot it into a third-person shooter. Now, hundreds of thousands of helldivers are laying down their lives for Super Earth every day, and this virtual war feels more alive than ever before.

That’s what really makes Helldivers 2 stand out as something special. Emergent stories are constantly cropping up everywhere – in individual missions and in the meta-narrative. Often, I find myself running from a pack of bots whose lasers have minced my teammates, or steering a hellpod onto a bile titan, becoming a one-man precision strike to save my friends. Sometimes, I call an artillery strike down on someone that has strayed too far behind enemy lines, because we all need to make sacrifices for liberty.

These little heroic deeds always feel important, especially since everyone is fighting a war on three fronts to push back enemy forces, unlocking new toys to play with and protecting the civilians back home. Helldivers 2 is a game that invites players to be a part of something larger than themselves, not unlike Planetside 2 or Foxhole. The scope of the conflict is impressive and the overarching storyline of shifting fronts directing players to save worlds makes playing feel like a galaxy-wide effort.

Defending Super Earth is fun – it’s exhilarating to beat back hundreds of enemies and it can be absolutely hilarious to watch things fall apart in real time. No other game telling a community-driven story has achieved the success of Helldivers 2, and that makes it one of the most important games of 2024.

Animal Well – Zach McAuliffe, Writer II

What pulled me into Animal Well wasn’t its gameplay, but the neon-drenched pixel graphics. Each section of the map is both lively and harsh as water falls from the top of your screen to a pool below one second and a dog chases you down a hole the next. Creatures shy away from you and hide in their burrows and ghosts relentlessly pursue you.

After I was finished taking in the entrancing surroundings, I lost myself in figuring out how to solve the puzzles. But solving one puzzle usually requires solving one or two others first. While this might feel tedious in other games, it feels rewarding in Animal Well because no two puzzles are alike. Each time you solve one, you have a brief moment of satisfaction before you have to move on and tackle the next. 

Beyond that, the game mechanics,hidden paths and items are interesting, and it all feels that much more impressive in a game with little to no dialogue or direction. I’ll replay Animal Well for years to come, and I relish the thought of finding new secrets and ways to solve the puzzles on every playthrough.

Game of the Year

Balatro – David Lumb, Writer II

When Balatro launched in February, gamers found a new addiction: though the poker-themed deckbuilder didn’t have a story, players were sucked into their own narratives racking up high scores playing straights, flushes and other hands to defeat the next ante. Getting new playstyle-altering Jokers and boosting your deck with Tarot cards keeps each run fresh, making losses easier to stomach. You’ll just boot up a new run and… there goes another hour. Balatro is life.

It’s tough to pinpoint the specific alchemy that makes Balatro so fun. Playing familiar poker hands seems easy enough, but there’s a gleeful mystery to whether your combination of Jokers and upgrades will rack up just enough chips to meet the round’s ante score threshold (don’t fall to temptation and use a calculator!). Like any good roguelike, even losing a run will probably lead to unlocking new decks, Jokers and other bonuses you might discover next time you play. And hey – who doesn’t love a game that bakes in “cheating” with novel Jokers and rare cards?

There’s a bit of a Cinderella story behind Balatro, as enigmatic developer and artist LocalThunk made the game on his own to see it skyrocket to the top of the charts and even bag a handful of GOTYs at The Game Awards. It’s easy to play and makes gamers feel clever as it constantly reveals new ways to win. Now that it’s on phones, there’s no reason not to pick Balatro up. Surrender your commutes and working hours. Balatro is everywhere.

source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/cnets-2024-game-of-the-year-awards