Gosh, video video games are good. They’ll make you suppose so deeply in regards to the world, and the place you belong in it. They’ll make you ponder true horror, in a manner that re-contextualises the world. They’ll additionally ship you on daring quests to seek out lacking salami, and to consensually movie as many voluptuous booties as attainable.
The perfect PC video games of 2024 did simply that. They despatched us on wild, actuality TV-inspired quests, and to the darkest depths of the ocean. They challenged our notions of world historical past. They requested us to determine the precise finest method to cover a lifeless physique, and when finest to summon a werebear. Briefly: they have been stunning, spectacular, bizarre, and fantastic.
Right here’s all one of the best PC video games of 2024, as voted by the GamesHub workforce.
Be aware: We’ve averted overlap with video games of the PlayStation and Xbox GOTY 2024 console checklist. Lots of the video games on that checklist ought to be thought-about a part of this checklist, and vice versa – however selection is the spice of life, and we had far too many video games to shout out this 12 months.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is an excellent, joyful recreation the place you’re a down-on-your-luck detective duck attempting to make it in an enormous, unhealthy world. Taking cues from Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol, this recreation duties you with investigating a seemingly cutesy crime: the theft of salami in an workplace surroundings. Everyone seems to be a suspect! Everyone seems to be lovely! Use your wits, and also you’ll finally uncover a a lot deeper conspiracy than you would possibly count on.
Learn: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – Review
In design and aesthetic, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami really is a recreation to behold. It’s easy by nature, however this works so properly to raise its central story, and its kooky forged of anthropomorphic animal workplace staff. Whereas bite-sized in nature, it makes probably the most of its runtime, for a full of life thriller journey that’s quacking great things. It’s wildly memorable, and so, so cool. – Leah J. Williams
Turnip Boy Robs a Financial institution
Who may have predicted that one in every of my absolute favorite video games of the 12 months would contain the escapades of a thieving vegetable? Turnip Boy Robs A Financial institution is a really pleasant romp that had me grinning stupidly at my Swap for hours.
Learn: Turnip Boy Robs A Bank review – Full of beans (and assorted vegetables)
From the artwork type to the dialogue and every thing in between, this can be a sequel that brings greater stakes, loftier targets and one heck of a heist. I cherished this recreation a lot – it’s so humorous and sharp that it makes you are feeling like robbing a financial institution is probably the most cheap factor on the planet for a turnip to do. – Steph Panecasio
The Crush Home
In a wonderfully surreal mix of actuality TV, ominous slime and manufactured drama, The Crush Home is a vivid and wonderful addition to this checklist. The sport takes voyeurism to a complete new stage, asking you to fulfill the whims and desires of quite a lot of extremely demanding audiences.
Learn: The Crush House review: The audience is always right
Ceaselessly humorous, vivid, and incisive in its humour, The Crush Home additionally has an exhilarating horror aspect that showcases the darkish aspect of leisure and social media, and the methods during which people are compelled to bounce for the pleasure of a worldwide viewers. – Steph Panecasio
Conscript
Conscript is a fully brutal murals that dives deep into the character of struggle, and its impression on psychology. Taking cues from Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it focuses largely on the horror of being a lone soldier, and in doing so, paints a sensible portrait of historical past. Too typically, struggle video games glorify battles, and paint troopers as heroes. Conscript rejects that narrative solely, for an impactful recreation that feels so wanted.
Learn: Conscript review – Reflecting war as real-life survival horror
Not solely is Conscript spectacular for its material and the way it’s dealt with, it’s additionally price noting that is the creation of Australian-based solo developer Jordan Mochi, who labored on the sport over various years. It’s an unbelievable achievement, and one which deserves to be applauded. Equally, Conscript deserves to be performed. It’s an important title that’s as memorable as it’s horrific. – Leah J. Williams
Sumerian Six
Sumerian Six grew to become an sudden love of mine in 2024, because of moreish and strong technique gameplay that genuinely tickles the mind. It is a turn-based alt-history journey that focuses on a bunch of super-powered heroes working to take down a bunch of magical Nazis. In your squad, you’ve bought a werebear, a chemist, an electrician, and extra, all of whom should work their manner throughout quite a lot of maps, placing away enemies with considerate ways.
Learn: Sumerian Six review – Going commando has never felt better
What makes Sumerian Six so moreish is its unfold of skills. One character is ready to soften enemies and get away with it, so long as they continue to be in cowl. The werebear is much less delicate, however he’s in a position to maintain extra harm. Elsewhere, you possibly can experiment with ghost-like skills and lightning arms, each of which require finesse and understanding to make use of correctly.
In the event you fail the primary time, Sumerian Six may be very beneficiant with its restarts, permitting you to experiment as you wander, whereas working in the direction of an answer to every problem map. This recreation was criminally underrated in 2024, and I’d like to see it get extra flowers in future. – Leah J. Williams
The Rise of the Golden Idol
The Rise of the Golden Idol is a superb, worthy follow-up to The Case of the Golden Idol that takes the method of the unique recreation, and shakes it up with a contemporary aesthetic, and much more difficult puzzles. Whereas it constantly makes you are feeling silly, there’s additionally a lot satisfaction in lastly working your manner in the direction of a viable puzzle answer, and determining precisely what’s gone down in every stage state of affairs.
I significantly like how The Rise of the Golden Idol works to problem assumptions. Once you first come throughout a scene – a jail with an escaped prisoner, or an icy tundra the place a person has seemingly fallen down steps – you conjure a story in your head. You assume. Then the sport forces you to query these assumptions, as you decide aside the reality of the matter.
In a single specific state of affairs, it appeared apparent to me {that a} lady had been visited by her ex-husband and assaulted in some method. The true fact required pondering deeply in regards to the state of her home, the objects mendacity on the ground, and the solutions left on her phone. Questioning what I believed was the one method to discover the true answer, and that’s precisely why The Rise of the Golden Idol works so fantastically properly. – Leah J. Williams
Neva
Are you ready to have your coronary heart captured and subsequently held hostage for a number of hours? Neva is an earth-shatteringly emotional recreation with an artwork type so beautiful that it’s my private favorite for Finest Artwork Path at The Sport Awards this 12 months.
Learn: TGA nominee Neva is an underrated gem you need to play
Easy block colors make up nearly all of the motion, giving method to pastel watercolour painted vistas that are simply so tastefully performed. I’m assured that when you give it an opportunity, Neva will tug in your heartstrings, sweep you away with the music, and provide you with a slice of one thing really stunning. – Steph Panecasio
Harold Halibut
Harold Halibut is an excellent rumination on the state of life, and the character of searching for function. As Harold, the viewers is invited into relative mundanity that’s quickly disrupted by the arrival of one thing different. What follows is a considerate story about stepping out of your shell, and touching the true world.
Learn: Harold Halibut review – Life in clay and technicolour
Past being stunning in narrative and that means, Harold Halibut can be stunning in aesthetic. The whole world of the sport is hand made from clay and different supplies that are 3D scanned in, making each scene appear and feel handmade. With every new quest, extra color and delight involves the fore, highlighting Harold Halibut as one of the crucial evocative video games of the 12 months. – Leah J. Williams
The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire is a vivid and modern journey recreation that presents a smorgasbord of contemporary, new concepts with every dawning chapter. It begins with a cool idea – you’re enjoying with characters who dwell in a narrative e book, with their e book laid out on a desk within the “actual world” – after which it constantly surprises, because the bounds of the story e book are damaged, and protagonist Jot is unexpectedly “freed” from his personal story.
Learn: The Plucky Squire review – A real page-turner
On technical and inventive ranges, The Plucky Squire is a recreation of nice surprise. You chart your manner by means of storybook pages, then take a number of wild turns right into a 3D bed room, with each worlds counting on one another, and neither being protected from the forces of evil. There’s so many cool moments in The Plucky Squire, every extra memorable than the final. It’s really a sight to see this recreation in motion. – Leah J. Williams
The Sims 4 Life and Dying
After they introduced a death-themed Sims 4 pack, I’m not exaggerating to say I screeched with glee. As one of many numerous vocal Sims followers who’ve been begging for funerals to be included for years (and to have the ability to woohoo the Grim Reaper, however that’s inappropriate), it felt like – at the very least on paper – I’d manifested the proper pack for me.
Learn: The Sims 4 Life and Death review – The best expansion yet
From the brand-new Reaper profession to bucket lists and the reincarnation cycle, I’ve cherished each minute of gameplay on this pack. It’s one of the crucial properly rounded Sims 4 expansions we’ve seen shortly, and I’m actually relieved that the Sims workforce have been in a position to nail the whole life and loss of life expertise. In spite of everything, what’s a life sim with out a little bit of loss of life? – Steph Panecasio
