My 2024 in video games

Well, somehow we’re here again, at the start of another calendar year (or rather, 1/12th of the way through it already). The games keep coming thick and fast, so once again I’m taking a look back over the year just past at what was on my Xbox (or my increasingly old PC).

2024 games

We saw some good games in 2023 and it feels like 2024 continued in the same vein. Playstation probably saw the better of the early part of the year as Helldivers 2 became a global phenomenon,along with the second part of the Final Fantasy VII remake. We had some great multi-platform releases such as Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, before we got our first Call of Duty launch into GamePass with Black Ops 6. Xbox dropped the eagerly anticipated Senua’s Saga Hellblade 2, before finishing the year strong with the launch of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Every year around Christmas time, you can guarantee at least one of the Indiana Jones movies will be on TV. But this year we had the added treat of Machine Games’ (of Wolfenstein fame) Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Described as a First Person Adventure Action, rather than Action Adventure game, TGC sees our swashbuckling hero travel round the world after a break-in at his workplace. What follows is a rip-roaring adventure as Indy sneaks around, wears disguises, and punches fascists in the face. The Wolfenstein DNA is undeniable but this is definitely more about stealth than action.

I’ve finished the game, and did so almost entirely without using guns. There were only a couple of points where I resorted to firepower after being swarmed by enemies after a botched attempt at stealth. There was one point in particular (no spoilers) where I just had to use the revolver, in a nod to Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, it really reminds me of the Hitman games, in the way you can take your time, use disguises, and find alternative routes to get to your objectives. There are lots of options to play with to tailor the difficulty to your liking, with a Tomb Raider-esque choice to independently scale puzzle and action difficulty levels.

The game is pure fan service. The voice acting of Troy Baker is almost indistinguishable from Harrison Ford as he absolutely nails not only the voice, but the mannerisms and speech patterns of the character. Setting the intro as a scene-by-scene recreation of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark is also a masterstroke, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear as I played through the intro mission, stopping to look at my fedora-wearing shadow in the beautifully-detailed jungle. There’s an incredible VA performance by the scenery-chewing villain Emmerich Voss, and it was a nice surprise seeing the late Tony Todd appear in a characteristically menacing role. Overall, the game design and production is absolutely incredible, and it’s clear it’s been a labour of love for the team.

Xbox definitely saved the best until last, and I couldn’t put it down from the point I started, all the way through to the credits rolling. An absolutely phenomenal demonstration of how to make use of a licence and it’s clear that Machine Games has put a lot of love for Indy into this project. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is hands down my favourite game of the year and I can’t wait to play the expected DLC whenever it hits.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

I missed the first Space Marine game on the Xbox 360 but having seen some footage of this I was keen to give it a shot. Space Marine 2 looks very “Gears of War”, which is ironic given Warhammer 40K was an obvious inspiration for the Gears world. Surprisingly though, while the movement and gunplay does feel very Gears-y, the focus is very much on melee combat. I am absolutely not very good at melee games, so I played on easy but thoroughly enjoyed the campaign. Melee attacks and finishers are used to boost shields and recover health, and finishing bigger targets can eliminate whole hordes of smaller ones in a single sweep.

The multiplayer mode is fun but has some major balancing issues, with matches tending to end in a complete stomping one way or another. The co-op Operations mode is where the longevity is for me though. This works like your standard PvE shooter, where a team of players (3 in this case) work together to complete objectives and eliminate hordes of enemies. As you progress you unlock perks that improve your character and allow you to undertake higher difficulty missions. With 6 different classes there’s plenty of variety in terms of different roles on the battlefield that keep the gameplay different and fresh.

Much like Darktide, the Warhammer 40k aesthetic is perfect here, with the game showing incredible attention to detail and a real grasp of the source material. I’m not sure how Games Workshop handle the creative oversight of external projects like this, but whatever they do it is working incredibly well. The environments are detailed and at times there are hordes of thousands of enemies on the screen at the same time, lending a sense of immense, almost oppressive scale.

I’ve enjoyed Space Marine 2 so much in fact, that I decided to get back into Warhammer 40k for the first time since I was a teenager. I may write some stuff on this in future, too.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Almost a decade to the day since Bungie debuted alpha gameplay of their new MMO-like looter shooter Destiny at E3 2014, the latest annual(ish) expansion for Destiny 2 released, concluding the Light & Dark saga which has been building since the launch of the first game. Bungie’s had ups and downs with their annual expansions, with many bemoaning the lack of a new “The Taken King” or even “Forsaken”. The Final Shape was an incredible send-off for the saga, hitting the perfect balance between nostalgia and new environments, enemies, and activities. Playing through the campaign, it really felt like we had hit the peak of our power, with pools of light regularly supercharging us and allowing us to use supers and grenades with almost impunity. We got to see the Vanguard off the leash, using their powers to shutdown the minions of Darkness, and a fitting resolution to Crow’s journey of self-discovery.

There have always been plenty of detractors of Destiny, none moreso than its own player-base. There are common complaints from more hardcore players of too little to do, or not rewarding enough loot. This is alongside complaints from more casual players who find the experience overwhelming, with too little time to do everything. As someone probably in the middle of this, I’ve really stepped away from Destiny 2 following The Final Shape. A lot of my clan have done similar, with only the more hardcore members still playing regularly. I’m still game for regular sessions, but this tends to be Dungeons, Raids or PvP, rather than keeping up with the seasonal story content. I may come back to it more fully at some point, but I’ve really enjoyed branching out into other games since finishing the campaign.

The next 6 months or so are going to be make or break for Destiny, and maybe for Bungie as a whole. Following a lot of acrimonious cutting of staff last year, and several scandals that have come out since, including Sony very publicly stating Bungie had missed targets, it’s not clear what the future of Destiny is. I hope D2 stays around but I have to admit that it may take a fully fledged Destiny 3 to properly draw me back in.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

If “Hunting Party” is my favourite mission, my least favourite is “Emergence”. There have always been some surreal elements to Black Ops but this mission (as well as some later ones which fully dispense with any attempts at “realism”) takes it way too far in my view and detracts from the overall campaign experience. Without wanting to spoil too much, there’s a definite “taster” of the Zombies mode in this mission, including some annoying, tanky enemies that immediately confirmed to me I’m not going to even attempt a Veteran completion of this entry. I don’t need hyper-realism from CoD but in my opinion this veered too far into the survival horror genre.

BO6 is a brilliant entry into the franchise and I’m still having a lot of fun dipping into the multiplayer, which is surprising to me given twitch shooters really aren’t my cup of tea. The objective-based modes are fun enough to be entertaining though. All in all, I’ve really enjoyed BO6 and I’m likely to be dropping back into it regularly over the months to come.

The ones that got away, 2024 version

Unlike most other years, in 2024 I managed to (more or less) keep on top of the big releases, and played most of the new games that I really cared about. As such, there are really only a couple I’m looking to pick up in the near future:

• Star Wars: Outlaws - This is at the top of my “to get” list. It was this or Space Marine 2 in September, and Space Marine 2 was cheaper, so I went with that. Outlaws looks fantastic, and everything I’d want from a Star Wars scoundrel adventure. I’ll take Ubisoft open world games with a healthy dose of scepticism, and try not to play them too close together, but I think this one looks great.
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 - I still haven’t finished the first game (maybe 2025 is the year) but this looks stunning and I’m keen to see how the story continues.

How the year went

After clearing a lot of my backlog in 2023, I was keen to continue this in 2024. I finally finished my ridiculously huge 2019 Bean Dive, which I’d pretty much given up all hope of ever completing, thanks to getting through a good chunk of games from my backlog. Here;s how my year in gaming went.

January, February, March

2024 started in great fashion, as I wrapped up the DLC for one of my favourite games played the year before, Remedy Entertainment’s incredible Control. There’s a lot of talk of a sequel and I can’t wait to get back to the Oldest House, especially if they manage to further link it to the rest of the Remedy Universe being established through Alan Wake and Quantum Break.

Upon wrapping up my time with Director Faden and the FBC crew, I jumped back into Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, determined to actually finish it this time. I’d played a few hours on a few previous occasions but only just got out of the starting area. I decided to give it a proper go this time and it properly got its hooks into me. The scale is incredible, really hammered home by the fact the map is spread across the Greek islands. Every system seems refined and improved from the already excellent Origins, and Kassandra is a great protagonist with just the right blend of wit and confidence.

With the build crafting and elements of choice in the campaign, the RPG enhancements really add a layer of depth to the game which adds to the longevity. The Greek mythology setting allows the game some freedom to dip into the weird and wonderful, such as Medusa and the Minotaur.

All-in-all, Odyssey wasn’t just a great Assassin’s Creed game but actually a great game overall. I’m really glad I went back to it and finished my playthrough.

April

After wrapping up AC: Odyssey in early April, the next title on my list was Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Despite not really enjoying the original Tomb Raider games (I know, I know), I absolutely loved both previous entries in the reboot series, or Uncharted: Lara Croft, if you like. Similarly to AC: Odyssey, I’d started SotTR a couple of times but always drifted away from it. This time though I got stuck in and really enjoyed the campaign, for the most part. Much like Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider, SotTR really nails the death-defying platforming and cleverly constructed levels, making for an intense, cinematic experience.

Combat still feels like the weakest part of the experience, especially late in the game. The last boss fight was particularly frustrating, as Lara kept doing the opposite of what I wanted while trying to scramble around a small arena. Likewise, a few of the insta-fail bits seem a bit unfair (f**k you, piranhas), even on lower difficulties. But these are minor gripes in what was otherwise an excellent game that tweaked and improved on its predecessors in every way.

May

I finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider in early May. Sticking with the theme of death-defying, ass-kicking female protagonists, next up I jumped (groan) straight into Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. I’d left this one fairly close to the end of the campaign at a point where I remembered getting quite frustrated with some of the enemies. After spending a bit of time re-learning the mechanics, it wasn’t long before I was wall-running and leaping my way around Glass (the futuristic city setting for the game), evading the private security forces and fighting the system. There are definitely frustrating parts of Catalyst, and some of the checkpointing is downright awful, but it certainly has an incredible aesthetic, with the entire city bathed in (almost) pristine white. The movement and combat system, while unorthodox, is really intuitive and allows talented runners to string together some amazing combos.

June & July

Onto the summer months, and it was time to put the backlog aside and focus on Destiny 2: The Final Shape. I’ve covered my thoughts on this above, so won’t revisit them here. Suffice it to say though, TFS was a really fitting conclusion to the story of the last decade, and a great return to form for the team at Bungie.

Speaking of Bungie, following completion of the TFS campaign, I went straight from their most recent title to their first Xbox release (kinda). After finishing off a number of games from my backlog through the year, I noticed I was within touching distance of finally recovering my 2019 Bean Dive. So I decided to spend some time with good old Master Chief, and relive the classic experiences of the original Halo trilogy.

Halo: Combat Evolved was the first game I got with my original Xbox and I remember being blown away by the experience. Many good times were had playing the Legendary campaign on split screen, or epic multiplayer battles via System Link. I decided just to chuck the games on easy and blast through all three campaigns, reliving some of the best content of the classic Xbox era. Halo 3 remains one of the best campaigns ever in my book, despite the horrific mission “Cortana”, which is best skipped IMO.

Since I obviously loved spending 5 years trying to recover my last Bean Dive, for some reason I decided to start a new Bean Dive in July. After popping a single achievement in a few new games, I decided to start recovery immediately, with Star Wars: Jedi Survivor having recently hit Xbox Game Pass.

August

Having enjoyed every minute of Fallen Order, I was keen to jump into Jedi Survivor at the first opportunity on Game Pass. Survivor builds on everything in the first game, upping the stakes, the scale, the freedom, and the gameplay to the next level. Much like Fallen Order, areas become further unlocked as your progress the story and unlock new skills, opening pathways which were previously off limits. I was curious how Respawn would approach Cal Kestis, given his journey to escape the inquisitors and discover his true ability in the first game. Jedi Survivor sees a much more grizzled Cal, questioning whether his efforts against the Empire are making any difference at all. Altogether it feels like a more personal story in Survivor. Cal isn’t just trying to get away, he’s searching for a purpose and looking for a way to keep those he cares about safe.

There’s humour, too. With a nod to the first game’s annoying frog-like enemy Oggdo Bogdo, and the most powerful being in the Star Wars universe: Rick the Door Technician. Survivor is simply brilliant, a really fun game to play, interesting campaign, and great acting from the whole cast. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Respawn close out the Jedi trilogy.

From one sci-fi movie franchise to another. After Jedi Survivor, I started co-op shooter Aliens: Fireteam Elite. I was keen to give another co-op extraction shooter a go since playing and enjoying Back 4 Blood way back in 2021. Fireteam Elite was always on my list, and I found it to be a really fun, if slightly unpolished experience. There’s not the highest replay value, as it lacks an AI director randomising things like Back 4 Blood, although the ability to play modifier cards to alter missions helps with this somewhat. Still, it was good fun, felt like part of the Aliens universe, and kept me busy for a few weeks.

September & October

As the nights started to draw in, it was time for something a little lighter in tone, and where better than a tale of piracy, ghosts, and three-headed monkeys? That’s right, it’s Return to Monkey Island! After a few titles which carried on the story but never quite hit the classic heights of LucasArts, it was great to see Ron Gilbert back involved with the latest game in the long-running adventure series. It may have a new art style, but RtMI is just as fun as ever and it was just the tonal shift I was looking for after a summer of galactic action.

Next up, I finally got round to finishing the story mode in Anthem. Last time I spent any real time with Anthem was back in 2021, and revisiting it 3 years on, nothing changed. It’s perhaps unsurprising, given Bioware dropped their plans for an overhaul to the game’s systems due to its poor sales performance. But what is surprising is that EA, a company known for aggressively shutting down servers for “old” games after only a couple of years, is still keeping the Anthem servers going. There’s enough there still to see glimpses of what Anthem could have been, but it’s very much another of a long-line of games that tried and failed to capture the Destiny 2 formula.

The rest of September and October took on a grimdark slant as I finally jumped into one of my wishlist from 2023, in Warhammer 40,000 Darktide. Another co-op extraction type game similar to Back 4 Blood and Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Darktide differs slightly in that it has a much higher focus on melee. The difficulty is solid enough to give a good challenge, and there’s plenty of replay value thanks to random spawns and constantly updating missions with differing objectives. There’s good variety offered via the four player classes, with each levelling up individually to unlock advanced gear and skills. And there’s a decent offering of gear, with upgrades and plenty of scope to grind for the stuff you want.

Sticking with the 41st Millenium, I then jumped into Space Marine 2. I’ll not repeat my comments from above, other than to say Space Marine 2 is a superb game that does incredible justice to the lore of Games Workshop’s universe. Here’s hoping, given its sales performance, that we get more GW experiences of a similar calibre to both SM2 and Darktide in the years to come.

November

Into the dark of November, and Call of Duty finally hit Xbox Game Pass (well I think it was technically late October, but who’s counting?). Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has been predictably huge, but again the Black Ops series proves it knows how to deliver a classic action movie-style campaign and slick multiplayer action.

December

As I usually do at this time of year I signed up to TrueAchievements’ 12 Days of Christmas annual event. For the 2024 event, I dipped into the backlog for this, picked up odd achievements in lots of games. One new game I did start for it was Grim Idle, which was a free download. It was quite a fun little “Idle RPG” in which the game basically plays itself and you upgrade the character to get further and further into timed runs. It’s recently had an update which adds a further 1000G, so I might drop back into it for a little change of pace.

As Christmas rolled around, what better way to celebrate and take it easy than spending it with one Dr Indiana Jones? I’ve covered The Great Circle already, but this was the perfect way to wrap up 2024 and begin 2025. Plenty of exploration, nostalgia, and a fun, classic Indy storyline. Not to mention punching hordes of Nazis in the face. Good stuff, and exactly what 2025 needs more of.

Most anticipated in 2025

And there we go. Incredibly, 2024 is done. Nothing much to do now other than look ahead to 2025. There are a few titles I’m keenly waiting for this year:

• Grand Theft Auto 6 - Remains to be seen whether this will make 2025 or not, but there’s almost zero chance of this not being an absolute blockbuster.
• Fable - I absolutely loved the Fable trilogy. Nothing beats running around villages farting at locals and listening to their complaints. It’s a little weird not having Lionhead at the helm but Playground Games have an incredible record with the Forza Horizon games and I’m sure they’ll do a great job.
• Assassin’s Creed: Shadows - Japan seems to be the most requested setting for Assassin’s Creed, going back many years. Hopefully the anti-DEI crowd can be drowned out long enough to see how the game delivers on its own merits.
• Gears of War: E-day - Okay, this one might not be a 2025 release but let’s be optimistic. I’ve been a fan of Gears since picking up the first game alongside my Xbox 360 in December 2006. While I’ve enjoyed all the games in the series (except Judgement, which I haven’t played), I don’t enjoy the Swarm as much as the classic Locust. The book series adds some excellent depth to the characters and touches on some of the events in this timeframe. As such, I’m excited to get back to classic Marcus & Dom and see what The Coalition can do in the original setting.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you’ve been playing over the last year or so and what you’re most looking forward to in 2024. Leave it below.