From Astro Bot to Balatro, the 2024 ‘game of the year’ race is too close to call | Games

Much like Christmas is a lot less enjoyable for the person who has to organise all the presents and cook the dinner, game-of-the-year season is rather intimidating for the people who have to put together the shortlists. Every November, I tot up all of the year’s acclaimed games I’ve yet to play, the underground recommendations I’ve yet to follow up on and the games I loved back in February but forgot about. I feel a mounting panic. And when all of the year-end lists come out, I inevitably find I’ve missed something anyway.

The Game Awards have just announced the nominations for this year’s ceremony, taking place on 12 December in Los Angeles. (Disclosure: the Guardian is one of 130 voting outlets for the awards, but my knowledge and involvement with them is limited to sending Geoff Keighley our ballots every year, usually a day or two late. Sorry, Geoff.) There are few surprises in the nominations, but I am pleased that one of the top two most nominated games is Astro Bot, with seven nominations, a game that cannot get enough praise as far as I’m concerned. (The other is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, up for six awards, which our critic dubbed a miracle of fan service; alas, I remain immune to the charms of Final Fantasy despite many attempts over the years to get into it).

The other nominees for game of the year are Balatro, the ludicrously compulsive card game that took over my life in January; Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, the expansion to the 2022 action role-playing masterpiece; Metaphor: ReFantazio, the wildly stylish Atlus RPG that I wrote about a few weeks back; and Black Myth: Wukong, an enormous hit this summer, despite significant controversy around its development and release.

This is a close competition, but my money is on Shadow of the Erdtree for the grand prize, because that game is especially beloved by game critics – although I’d be delighted if Astro Bot wins. The dark horse is Balatro. Everyone I know has lost a week or two to that game, but its charm wore off the second I’d won at it. There is a public vote worth 10% of the weighting, though, which will significantly boost Black Myth: Wukong, given its enormous fanbase in China.

Elsewhere, I was happy to see Neva, the game about a warrior and her wolf that made me full-on sob, nominated for best art direction, best independent game and the confusing games for impact category. The latter list is supposed to be “for a thought-provoking game with a pro-social meaning or message”, but it seems to have become a catch-all category for “games involving emotions”. I’ve played most of the games nominated in that category and a) I don’t know what unites them and b) I couldn’t tell you what “pro-social” means in this context.

Indika is a bleakly fascinating horror-ish game about a 19th-century nun that takes a swipe at the Russian Orthodox church; Hellblade II, like its predecessor, portrays its lead character’s struggles with psychosis; Tales of Kenzera: Zau is about grief and draws from its creator’s African heritage; Closer the Distance is also about grief; Neva could, I suppose, be interpreted as environmentalist, and also has a smattering of loss in there. I can’t determine what message Life Is Strange: Double Exposure has along these lines, though.

Otherwise, welcome surprises are thin on the ground. Eerie explorative puzzle game Animal Well shows up in best independent game, as does Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, an unpredictable mystery set in an abandoned hotel, and UFO 50, the absurdly generous compilation of 1980s-style games from Mossmouth. Pacific Drive, the spooky weird-fiction road trip that has you constantly repairing and reinforcing a falling-apart old car, also made it on to the best debut game list. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown deserves its shout in best action game, though I was truly disappointed that Dragon’s Dogma II only made it on to best RPG.

And, of course, Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is up for a best mobile game award. I’ve been playing that for a couple of hours every day since it came out (and I still don’t have a shiny Articuno).

Video Games Chronicle have compiled an easy-to-parse list of all the categories and nominations. But if you find the Game Awards far too commercial, a new awards show is debuting this year. The Indie Game Awards will celebrate the “creativity, innovation and passion” of gaming’s smaller-scale developers, and the nominees have just been announced. Choice cuts from the best game category: Mouthwashing, a horror game that follows the doomed crew of a space freighter in their last days together; Arranger, an innovative RPG puzzler; and action game Nine Sols, a sort of cross between Hollow Knight and Sekiro, which I’ve been meaning to try out all year.

Tell us your favourites …

Before I get back to my own intimidating lists, I will, as ever, be shouting out Pushing Buttons readers’ favourite games of 2024 in the newsletter towards the end of December. Please do start sending them in, with a few sentences about what they meant to you, and look for the results in a few weeks.

What to play

I remain fascinated by The Rise of the Golden Idol, a gruesome and bizarre detective story that’s kind of a mix of logic puzzles, fill-in-the-blank clues and a hidden object game. Each case comes in the form of a tableau, an animated painting in a style I can’t quite pin down but reminds me of a sort of twisted version of Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic.

Characters are frozen in a few-seconds loop right at the moment of a crime, or in the immediate aftermath, and you must figure out who everyone is, why they are there and what the heck happened. All of it feeds into a bigger narrative about corruption, deception and a cursed object. This game often makes me feel very stupid (I don’t have a great brain for names and details) but I have stuck with it regardless, because it’s so unusual and it challenges me in ways few other games have.

Available on: Smartphones (with Netflix subscription), PC, consoles
Estimated playtime: 12 hours

What to read

• To celebrate World of Warcraft’s anniversary, Blizzard rereleased Warcraft and Warcraft II with updated graphics. Unfortunately, everybody hates them. Valve’s Half-Life 2 anniversary update went down much better; the venerable game just broke its years-old concurrent players record on Steam.

• A Minecraft theme park is set to open in the UK in 2026 or 2027. I’m already coming out in a cold sweat imagining the crowds at half-term.

• Another gaming event bites the dust: WASD, a much-loved indie-focused showcase for PC games, is no more.

• A useful explainer of Roblox’s forthcoming “improved” parental controls.

What to click

Question Block

I’ll answer a new question next week, but for now, I have some reader recommendations in response to the last few Question Blocks. First, some further suggestions for Jonny’s wife, who’s looking for a game like Civilization VI but not so lacking in chill:

“I have youngish children, and Terra Nil really scratches my ‘massively reduced god game’ requirements. Also, it’s completely child friendly, down to any age, really. It’s not an exact Civ replacement, but has sort of the same vibe.” – Charlie

“I’d recommend Polytopia. It can be played as a speed run Civ but is otherwise basically like classic Civ. However, knock down the difficulty and it’s pretty chill. Other pluses: tech stops before guns, and various Civs have their own tech trees. One lot end up with dragons. Another are an insectoid alien lot that I’ve yet to properly master. Most importantly, it’s a quite immediate game. I loved it as a big fan of Civ II who wants to love Civ VI but hasn’t got the time for it. But I can always spend a few minutes on a Polytopia battle.” – Craig

And a couple for reader Lewis, who was looking for good puzzle games to play on his phone without being battered by horrible ads:

“Solomon’s Boneyard and Solomon’s Keep are brilliant! Favourites of mine and my friend’s. The former is the better of the two, but if you are not a fan of endless modes, the latter might suit you more.” – Timothy

If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on [email protected].