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2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Graphics, Technical

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/24/2024

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For some reason we are still making games for the previous generation that is now 10 years old. Why? This is sadly really holding this generation back. I’m hoping the PS4 and Xbox One are mostly dropped by next year for larger budget games as we are still not seeing the full potential of these systems yet and we’re already halfway through this console cycle.

Astro Bot

You might be surprised that I picked a lighter hearted game geared towards family fun. Astro Bot has one thing graphically that no other game has accomplished. Convincing textures. Not only do these translate on screen well, but you can feel and hear them in the DualSense controller. The detail is absurd and everything feels, looks, sounds, and reacts just like it should. Space blanket material, jelly, canvas, water, metal, glass, etc. It’s unbelievable what Team Asobi pulled off with the PS5 hardware. We need more of this in 2025.

Runner-Ups

Silent HIll 2 (2024)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Black Myth: Wukong

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Most Exciting Return

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2024

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Some games get announced and become massive stories in the industry. Some due to their nature of going through development hell (Duke Nukem Forever) or a once long dead franchise making its way back. These games can be total remakes, surprise HD remasters, or brand new sequels or reboots.

Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Bloober Team had all odds stacked against them when Silent Hill 2 (2024) was announced. Bloober Team had never done a remake and their own original IPs weren’t blockbuster hits. The reveal trailer was not well done and subsequent trailers did not show what fans wanted. However, despite all of the fog surrounding the game, players were cautiously excited hoping this would be the game to tell Konami to get the series going again. Once the game was unleashed to the masses, Bloober Team exploded into the stratosphere as a compentent developer and were handed the keys to the franchise by the community at large.

Runner-Ups

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Dragon’s Dogma II

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best New Character

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/22/2024

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We didn’t get that many new characters this year, and the ones that were new mostly felt like avatars or were fairly forgettable. A great character isn’t just their voice, but their attitude, looks, style, and the way they move in the game. Look at characters like Gordan Freeman. You never actually see or hear him in the game yet his character design is iconic.

Eve – Stellar Blade

You could argue that Eve is cheating with her sex appeal and it’s an automatic win. Not necessarily. Eve oozes style and she looks good on screen not just because of her skin tight suits, but her personality shows in her fluid animations in combat, the way she talks to people in the world, and her curious nature in the game. She’s more than just eye candy here. Like Bayonetta (Bayonetta) and 2B (Nier: Automata) before her, sex appeal is done tastefully and her entire style ends up being front and center over showing any skin.

Runner-Ups

Zhu Bajie – Black Myth: Wukong

Indika – Indika

Reina – Tekken 8

Heismay Noctule – Metaphor: ReFantazio

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Shooter

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/21/2024

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The shooter genre has been a bit stale over the last five years. This genre is one of the few that refuses to innovate or change in any way and tends to fall in the live-service trap the most. This year saw a slight bump in quality, but there just wasn’t a large variety either. Both third-person and first-person shooters made their cut this year.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

Space Marine II wasn’t just a long awaited sequel, but it’s a third person shooter that feels good and has personality. Sure, you probably need to know something about the tabletop series to really appreciate this game, but for those who have never played a Warhammer game before this is still a lot of fun. With great co-op and a fantastic campaign, there’s not a lot here to hate.

Runner-Ups

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Helldivers II

Mad Mullet Jack

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Original Music

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/20/2024

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Original soundtracks are part of what gives a game its identity. Rarely are soundtracks good enough to listen to outside of the game, or even more so, have a theme or tune that nearly every gamer can hum. This year saw one of the few times when quite a few games had fantastic original soundtracks. We need to get back to great OST’s.

Neva

The heart wrenching moments in Neva are mostly thanks to the games phenomenal soundtrack. Beautiful melodies, melancholy tracks, and the occasional song of whimsy. Neva’s entire story can be told just by the music alone and it’s good enough to listen to even outside of the game.

Runner-Ups

Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Stellar Blade

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Rogue-Like

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/20/2024

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Many don’t know, but Rogue-Like is derived from the 8-bit video game Rogue that started it all. These games are “like Rogue”. This genre tends to have a die hard set of fans and aren’t very casual gamer friendly. These games are exploding in popularity year-over-year from deck builders, to platformers, to beat ’em ups.

Balatro

Balatro is one of those rare games that just works so well and feel like sorcery. How is such a simple card game so addictive and so popular? The poker game is deeper than you think and is more than just a simple game of chance. You need strategy to win big and defeat the bosses and get ahead of the computer. It’s available on every platform you can imagine and I hope to see a sequel soon.

Runner-Ups

Mullet Mad Jack

Halls of Torment

BlazBlue: Entropy Effect

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Graphics, Artistic

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/18/2024

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Artistic visuals don’t always have to be technically impressive. Some times a beautiful 16-bit sweeping landscape can be full as much detail as the most realistic shooter. The best artistic graphics give a game a unique style and look that can’t be compared to any other game. This year was chalk full of artistic flair and brilliant talent from many studios.

Neva

Neva may seem like a walking simulator platformer on the surface, but what lies inside is a fantastic tale of a woman and her beast fighting evil across the land they love. The visuals are breathtaking from sweeping vistas, gorgeous palettes that portray each season, and a game that must be played on an OLED screen.

Runner-Ups

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Astro Bot

Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best RPG

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/18/2024

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When you think of RPGs you usually think of 16-bit classics or those that helped from franchises in the 32-bit era. Final Fantasy, Persona, Tales of, and so on. JRPGs tend to dominate this genre, but western RPGs with their open-worlds and more action-oriented combat tend to make their way to the top as well. This year saw a huge splash of long awaited AAA titles that mostly dominated this genre.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

JRPGs tend to have a tight grip on this genre, but they aren’t quite as popular as they once were. With the hours long dialogue and cut-scenes, archaic gameplay mechanics, and sometimes stale worlds and trope-infested stories JRPGs are held to a pretty high standard and don’t usually become popular outside of their niche fanbase. Once in a while, these tend to blow up and get everyone to join in. Metaphor did just that thanks to the masterminds behind Atlus. While the story isn’t fantastic the characters, settings, world, visuals, and music are memorable.

Runner-Ups

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Dragon’s Dogma II

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Beyond Galaxyland

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best New Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/15/2024

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New games are some of the most exciting and worrying things that appear on a gaming calendar. Games can look amazing, but end up being terrible and vice versa. This year we saw new games from both AAA studios and indie alike. These are some of the bravest developers showing and giving us their passion project in hopes that it becomes the next successful franchise.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Despite being in the Shin Megami Tensei universe this new game from Atlus does not bear its or its brethren series Persona name at all. Metaphor is a stylish RPG with remnants and gameplay and visual DNA from Atlus that fans have grown to love. While the story isn’t anything to write home about, its characters, gameplay, settings, and battle system are engaging to the very end.

Runner-Ups

Balatro

Stellar Blade

Unicorn Overlord

Neva

2024 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Platformer

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/15/2024

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With no Mario title this year the platform genre has room for a new title to shine through. The platformer genre has been a bit dry lately with most platforming sticking to the Metroidvania sub-genre. However, platformers are a timeless classic whether in 2D or 3D.

Astro Bot

Astro Bot is one of the biggest surprises in gaming history. No one thought this once cute little tech demo was going to explode and become one of the best platformers of all time surpassing even Super Mario Galaxy. Astro Bots are cute, full of expression, and the love for the PlayStation brand seeps through every pixel on screen. The physics, momentum, level design, and visuals are just to enough to make this nearly perfect game shine bright.