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26.02.2024 - 14:19 / polygon.com
Games are weird again!
Don’t get us wrong, 2023 was an all-timer. We got new Zelda and Mario. Armored Core and Baldur’s Gate woke up from cryogenic sleep. Alan Wake rose from its plot in the Video Game IP Cemetery, while Street Fighter 6acted like Street Fighter 5 had never happened. But while 2023 was an unforgettable year for iconic franchises, it wasn’t a surprising one. Nobody was underestimating Nintendo, FromSoftware, and Capcom.
2024, on the other hand, has been unpredictable! Our favorite games include a gun-wielding Pokémon parody, a surprisingly popular sequel in a totally different genre than its little-played predecessor, and a massive RPG where a reformed yakuza recreates Animal Crossing with perverts and garbage dumps.
This is a year for the real sickos (it’s us, we’re sickos) — the ones who feel their skin tingle and their pupils widen when they see “7/10” at the bottom of a review. This is the person who doesn’t want a pitch-perfect remake of Final Fantasy 7; they want Final Fantasy 7 tossed into a cosmic blender and funneled down their gullet.
It may be a decade before we see another year like 2023, but that’s okay by us. Without a classic entry in a beloved franchise released every month, there’s room for the new, the weird, and the unexpected.
The games on this list will be sorted in reverse chronological order, so the newest releases will always show up first. We also have a short section at the end devoted to late 2023 releases we didn’t have the time to consider for last year’s best-of list.
Where to play: PC
Lysfanga is a single-player game for people who wish they were better about scheduling time for multi-player games. Set in an ancient kingdom, a squad of heroes must work together to obliterate baddies and solve puzzles. The twist: One player controls all the characters by layering one run through an arena atop of another. And another. And another, another, and...
Each fight takes place in an arena crowded with too many enemies to squish within the fight’s limited amount of time. When the clock strikes zero, the battle doesn’t end; it restarts. Now, the player is supported by an AI partner recreating their previous run. Over and over, the player repeats this process, amassing a mob of clones that help them get through the level. The real fun isn’t the combat, but solving little puzzles that require multiple copies of yourself to flip switches and release powerful attacks at precisely the same time. In these moments, you feel less like a hero and more like the world’s finest choreographer. —Chris Plante
Where to play: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC
Australian author Christina Stead once wrote that every love story is a ghost story, a phrase that perfectly encapsulates the
This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
Tom Clancy’s The Division Resurgence by Ubisoft has delayed its launch yet once again. The third-person shooter was supposed to roll out later this month, but that’s not happening now. The launch date has now been pushed to December 2024. I know, it’s quite a drag!
A series constant, Final Fantasy's Moogle is a familiar sight to many, and along with the Chocobo, serves as a mascot of sorts for the franchise. But the busted-looking Moogle we got in the recently released Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has been rejected by a particular segment of the community, who are convinced the gritty redesign looks more like Matthew McConaughey playing a drug mule named Miguel than a fantastical portmanteau of mole and bat.
Legions of Elden Ring fans have been scouring The Lands Between in recent weeks ever since director Hidetaka Miyazaki let slip that something (secret, reference, or otherwise) remained to be unearthed. A newly discovered link between a shield in the base game and enemies in the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has been found and may indeed be that missing link.
Amazon's upcoming TV take on Fallout continues to look incredible, and we appear to be on the precipice of a bold new world in which video game adaptations, like HBOs The Last of Us, don't have to be terrible. Over three minutes, the insanity and «vibe» of the bizarre post-apocalyptic setting are damn-near perfectly captured, and we can't help but get our hopes up for this one.
The official full trailer for upcoming horror film Late Night with the Devil has dropped, and it looks like a mix of The Exorcist and retro late-night talk shows.
Xbox Game Pass has confirmed another day-one game for 2024 in the form of The Alters. The next title from award-winning developer 11 Bit Studios is still without an official release date, although the Polish company committed to bringing it to PC, consoles, and Xbox Game Pass sometime this year.
Pre-orders for an unannounced PS4 collection of beloved post-apocalyptic PC S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are currently live in Japan, indicating that the atmospheric shooters could be headed to console for the very first time. Spotted by the ever-watchful Gematsu, pre-orders are currently available at Japanese retailers like Biccamera, Neowing, and Rakuten Book.
Holdfast, Helldivers, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has confirmed the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuits have passed preliminary testing with flying colours. These colossal weapons of war represent a bold new phase in the ongoing struggle, giving our mobile infantry tried-and-tested armoured support, which passed all tests with flying colours in preliminary deployments across the galaxy.
Rumours that the recently released Persona 3 Reload would be getting The Answer (previously only playable in the Persona 3 FES iteration) began swirling last month and look increasingly likely to be correct. Now that the game has been in players' hands for a while, further evidence has emerged that there is still more SEES action to come. Warning: vague item description spoilers for Persona 3 Reload incoming!
It's hard to believe it's been two years since one Elden Ring player rose above all others, proving their right to the throne of Elden Lord through repetitive ritual combat. Let Me Solo Her, as this jar-clad hero would come to be known, would dutifully slay the game's most brutal boss for players single-handedly, becoming an enduring legend in the process.
The official MultiVersus X account has posted its first update in over eight months, seemingly hinting at plans to launch the game soon.