Games

[icycalm]

December 8, 2024 update: https://culture.vg/reviews/awards/game-of-the-year.html

• Added two more years: 2025 and 2026.
  
  
• Removed the disclaimer from 2024 because the choices for this year are pretty much made at this point (see below).
  
  
• 2024 GOTY goes to Alex Kierkegaard's Master of Heroes, replacing Alex Kierkegaard's Kingslayer, which has been pushed back to January. And no, MoH isn't out yet, but it will be before the end of the month. And yes, it's the best game released this year by a galaxy. It's a 4X whose major battles are entire PF/SF/D&D organized play scenarios lasting 4 hours each, of which there are HUNDREDS with more released every month, and its world map is peppered with 600-page GMRPG campaigns for christsake. Where is its competition? You unlock entire COMIC BOOKS and even NOVELS as you play. And it looks like fucking THIS:
  
  
  
  It sounds even better btw. Longest and greatest soundtrack of all time.
  
  
• Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 was first 2024 runner-up and is now pushed to second runner-up, while Squadron 42 that used to be there is now kicked up to 2026 (more on which below). And yes, SC Alpha 4.0 isn't out yet, but it will be in about 10 days, mark my words. And it will be the third-best game released this year.
  
  
• The SECOND-best game released this year meanwhile is clearly Alex Kierkegaard's Master of Combat, and this has already been released (its first level was completed back in February, and its second will be completed before the end of this month). If MoH ends up delayed, then MoC will take GOTY. But MoH won't be delayed. I am in touch with the team daily. MoH will be out this year.
  
  
• 2025 GOTY goes to Alex Kierkegaard's Kingslayer. You've seen the videos and the screenshots, you've read the design notes. It has no competition.
  
  
• 2025 first runner-up goes to Alex Kierkegaard's Arena Master, the world's first (and best) versus CRPG. Fight your way out of every arena unlocked in the Battlegrounds in full Cult Engine 3 glory, in both PVE and PVP fights. Each arena is unique with unique cast of characters and plot and rewards to unlock, and full integration with Master of Heroes so your champions can join your 4X efforts as soon as they've won/broken free. It's unreal concept, the coolest arena game ever. No competition. More details soon. P.S. In order for this to be released, Kingslayer must be released first because it unlocks the first arena in its early stages. So if Kingslayer is out in January, February at the latest, you can expect Arena Master same month, or at least in March. At any rate Q1 2025, to put it this way.
  
  
• As for the second 2025 runner-up, I put up Dune: Awakening for now. It's the coolest thing I see coming that's not made by me. That said, if Star Citizen releases base-building next year, of course that will annihilate Dune. It will even give my Arena Master, let's face it, a run for its money (but not Kingslayer; Kingslayer can't be beat and will be 2025 GOTY no matter what; it too has "base-building", but much better than SC's: you can put down each plank of wood for your house individually or tear it up or set it on fire or blow it up or dig under it).
  
  
• 2026 GOTY of course goes to Squadron 42. If you aren't convinced, watch this: https://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=39925#p39925
  
  
• I don't have any solid picks for 2026 runner-ups, it's too far out for now, so I just put TBA for both. However, I plan to start updating the frontpage release schedules soon, so that will force me to look carefully at the upcoming releases, so I should be able to make a couple of educated guesses very soon and plug them in. Personally, the number 1 non-metaverse game I am looking forward to is the Cyberpunk sequel. Also Life is Feudal II of course, if it still exists. But mostly, as you might have noticed, pretty much every slot for the past few years and for the foreseeable future is/will be metaverse games (which includes Squadron 42 since it's merely a Star Citizen campaign). That's the same thing that happened with the jump from 2D to 3D: there was still the occasional 2D game winning a slot in the 3D era, but with every passing year there were fewer and fewer of them, and past a certain point they almost vanished. We're in the middle of the same transition happening for invisible wall/Potemkin games and metaverse games. That's evolution, some people evolve and others don't (there are still people that play only 2D games for example, and dogs still only play fetch), and whoever doesn't like it can take it up with Darwin.

[icycalm]

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