New blog! @dougbonham.blog takes us on a journey to the edge of memory, where The Old Games lurk.

Game of the Year: 1000xRESIST "I believe 1000xRESIST is an essential addition to the canon that expands our knowledge of not just what games can express but how they can express it." – @nickcummings.com Many congratulations to @sunsetvisitor.studio! www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#2 - Thank Goodness You're Here! "Yes, it's masterfully animated with a fabulous sense of place; yes, it's funny and fun for its entire playtime. But its combination of those strengths coalesces into something magical." Congrats, @coalsupper.bsky.social! www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#3 - Dragon Age: The Veilguard "It’s the party and their dynamic with the player, Rook, that makes Veilguard stand out. The story Veilguard tells is one rooted in empathy even with flawed people." – @tyleramartin.bsky.social Read more: www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#4 - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes "Its puzzle design is superb and beautifully interwoven with themes of unresolved trauma, missed opportunities, and the struggle to create art that authentically expresses the creator's intention." Congrats, @simogo.com! www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#5 - Balatro "I can think back to any number of games — roguelites like Hades, countless sports games — which have afflicted me deeply, to the point of distracting from homework, housework, and sleep. Few hit as hard as Balatro." Congrats, @localthunk.com! www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#6 - Helldivers 2 "The real magic is in the stories it creates: The missions that spiral into total disaster; the last-second heroics; the unplanned chaos that somehow works out. These moments cement Helldivers 2 as 2024’s standout multiplayer experience." www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#7 - Tactical Breach Wizards "A deeply entertaining strategic romp about the strength found in diversity, and how sometimes you gotta get by with a little help from your friends." – Spencer www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#8 - Metaphor: ReFantazio "Metaphor wears the aesthetics and tropes of fantasy, but beneath the traditional veneer is a story dealing with issues that feel contemporary, even prescient, given the current geopolitical climate." – @tyleramartin.bsky.social www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#9 - Dragon's Dogma 2 "What cements Dragon’s Dogma 2 as one of our top games of 2024 is its delayed title card. The cycle of rebirth, laced with themes of free will, threads into the game’s “true” ending." Read @aaronthayer.bsky.social's full write-up here: www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

#10 - Astro Bot "Here’s the thing about video games, though: they are often more than the sum of their parts. Astro Bot is charming and perhaps most importantly for a platformer, it’s an absolute joy to play." – @tyleramartin.bsky.social Read more: www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

How does the act of observation drive a person to action? Watcher, from @sunsetvisitor.studio's 1000xRESIST and the winner of our Best Character award, is both the player's avatar and agentic in her own right, student and teacher, past and future. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

How do you make a no-win situation meaningful to play? Ask the Dragon Age: The Veilguard team about Weisshaupt, a powerful sequence that rewarded long-time fans and stood out to us as the Best Moment of 2024. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

Transcending time, space, and reality to tell a deeply human story, 1000xRESIST's narrative is powerful and important. We're thrilled to name it the winner of our Best Storytelling award. Hekki grace, @sunsetvisitor.studio. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

What's the most fun game of 2024? Well, according to us, it's Thank Goodness You're Here! It's a slap-filled romp through a charming old Northern English town, and despite that description, it's quite a delight from start to finish. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

The winner of our Best Multiplayer award is Helldivers 2, a game that dared to ask: "what if all the prickly/goofball movement and combat systems of Metal Gear Solid V were blended with multiplayer with your friends?" Folks: it's a good time. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

Our The Shape of Things to Come award is a bit of a dubious honor so, uh, congratulations to "Fortnite and the Metaverse as a Neutron Star" for collapsing pop culture down into a portable, bland shooter. We can't believe you killed Unreal Tournament for this. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

Our pick for Best Art Direction is @coalsupper.bsky.social's whimsical and irrepressible point-and-slap adventure game, Thank Goodness You're Here! @dougbonham.blog elaborates on the game's lovely aesthetic in greater detail here: www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

The winner of our Best Music award is @simogo.com's Lorelei and the Laser Eyes! Its blend of acoustic and synthetic instrumentation and use of dynamic environmental music make it an indelible part of a deeply memorable game. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

The winner of our Least Probable Game of the Year award is EA Sports College Football 25, a game whose mere existence would be enough to set @dougbonham.blog's heart aflutter.

Our Best Game Not of the Year is Magic: The Gathering! It's now more than 30 years old, making it most definitely *not* of the year. @nickcummings.com explains the highs and lows of Magic in 2024 and what it's meant to return to a childhood favorite. www.siliconsasquatch.com/blog/2024/12...

Welcome to the 2024 Silicon Sasquatch Game of the Year Awards! 🏆 This is our fifteenth annual feature on the best and most noteworthy games of the year. We do it because we believe thoughtful criticism is a good and important thing and because we want to help more people engage with the medium.

Welcome to the 2024 Silicon Sasquatch Game of the Year Awards! 🏆 This is our fifteenth annual feature on the best and most noteworthy games of the year. We do it because we believe thoughtful criticism is a good and important thing and because we want to help more people engage with the medium.

Okay! We're almost halfway through 2025, so it's the perfect time for us to talk about the best games of 2024. Sorry it took us so long, but we're all aging millennials, many of whom have substantial obligations to children and/or Magic: The Gathering. Anyway. Let's get started!

Hello! We're an independent, ad-free, labor-of-love blog that's been covering games and culture since 2008. We typically hibernate most of the year before popping up for a big end-of-the-year feature. Check out our writing and podcasts at siliconsasquatch.com if you're so inclined. Cheers!