Games

2024 was an extraordinary year for video game enthusiasts like myself, with a plethora of outstanding titles hitting the market. To celebrate this exceptional year in gaming, the Shack Staff and I collaborated on compiling our favorite games, and we took it a step further by incorporating the collective wisdom of the Shacknews Chatty Community. Our combined votes culminated in one definitive list – the Shacknews Top 24 Games of 2024!

Feel free to watch our Top 10 video or read along beneath the embedded clip to explore Games 24-11. Enjoy the journey through some of the best games the year had to offer!

Year after year, numerous games are unveiled, but only a handful can rival the enchantment they cast on gamers like Balatro. Developed solo by LocalThunk, this innovative twist on poker stands out from the crowd and has significantly boosted his reputation in the gaming world. We’re thrilled to announce that LocalThunk has been bestowed with the Shacknews Person of the Year 2024 award.

Creating video games is challenging under optimal conditions, but crafting a game that captures people’s hearts and encourages them to buy it is a rare achievement even when everything goes smoothly. Remarkably, GSC Game World managed to pull off both these feats during a time when their home country was being invaded by Russia. An extraordinary feat that language can hardly express, and the reason this tenacious studio received the Shacknews Best Developer of 2024 award.

In most cases, it’s rare for a company to release over five top-tier games in a year and have them resonate with different audiences, but Sega managed to achieve this remarkable feat. Although Sega also released Sonic X Shadow: Generations as their own title, they still succeeded in publishing a series of games that frequently appear on our annual Shacknews Awards list for 2024.

As a dedicated gamer, I’m excited to share that Saber Interactive is still hard at work on Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. Recently, they unveiled a fresh Operation within the game, hinting that there are more PvE Operations in the pipeline for future updates. However, it seems some PvP players feel a tad neglected in this journey.

As soon as developer LocalThunk disclosed that Balatro would become available on mobile devices, it became clear we were facing a considerable dilemma. The challenge, you see, was that Balatro has a knack for consuming vast amounts of time – transforming mere minutes into hours with the skill of a magician producing a rabbit from a hat.

Marvel Rivals dominated the Steam and Twitch charts last week.

NetEase Games’ Marvel Rivals has been released, featuring a multitude of playable characters, both heroes and villains, along with various stages for battle. Given that it’s a free-to-play live-service game, expect continuous updates with fresh characters, levels, and naturally, different game modes.

The new edition, titled Asphalt 10, belongs to Gameloft’s highly successful racing game franchise, Asphalt. The latest release in this series, Asphalt Legends Unite, came out around mid-2018 and continues to thrive today with continuous updates like new maps, vehicles, and additional features.

As a long-time fan of mobile gaming, I’m absolutely thrilled about the upcoming release of Wuthering Waves 2.0 on PlayStation consoles! Ever since its debut in May, I’ve been hooked on this captivating gacha game, and I can hardly wait to immerse myself in a whole new chapter of adventure when it launches at the start of the new year.

I’ve always been eager for more opportunities to explore the vast world of Wuthering Waves, so the release date and countdown for its PS5 debut have me practically jumping out of my seat! Not only will I be able to enjoy the game’s brilliant mechanics on a larger screen, but I’ll also get to experience the enhanced visuals and performance that PlayStation 5 offers.

Moreover, I can’t help but feel a sense of anticipation as I prepare for the game’s pre-order bonuses and preloading process. As someone who always wants to be ahead of the curve in gaming, I plan on taking full advantage of these opportunities to get a head start on my fellow players and delve deeper into the captivating world of Wuthering Waves 2.0 as soon as possible!

I can hardly wait for the new year to arrive so that I can finally play this exciting new chapter of one of my favorite mobile games on my PlayStation console. Bring on the adventure, Wuthering Waves!