The best graphics of the year, the best soundtrack and the remake of the year are part of the GameCentral mini-awards, along with the Worst Game of 2024.
Our list of the 20 best games of 2024 pays tribute to what we consider to be the best video games of the year, but sometimes titles can have elements that deserve high praise, even if the overall game doesn't necessarily work on all levels.
We wouldn't unconditionally recommend the games we've named as having the best visuals and the best music, and our innovation of the year award goes to a title that barely made our Top 20, but there's no doubt about that, at least in some cases. All aspects are very successful games.
Our worst game of the year is the only one that has no redeeming features, but it's always useful to warn about this as well, especially when it's a licensed game.
best images
The brave squire
It is very common that the best graphics of the year do not belong to a particularly good game. Since the games began, amazing graphics have been used to make up for mediocre gameplay and we're afraid to say that's definitely true for The Plucky Squire.
It's not a bad game, but its attempt to combine Zelda-style 2D visuals with the ability to walk around in a modern 3D world is much more interesting for how it looks than how it plays. It's a shame, because the game also has a lot of other cool ideas, like turning the storybook you play into a physical object that you can move to change the game world, but unfortunately it never evolves beyond a neat visual trick.
Runner-up: Black Myth: Wukong
Better innovation
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
2024 has been a little short on big new ideas, although we were very impressed with how well Batman: Arkham Shadows nailed its VR controls and how the puzzles work in Arranger. However, the most fun and inventive idea of the year was Echoes Of Wisdom, the Zelda spin-off game where you can finally play as Zelda herself.
It wasn't a perfect game, but it revolved around a completely new concept in which Zelda is able to clone any object, whether living or inanimate, and create new copies indefinitely. This is used to solve puzzles and engage in combat, and while the game doesn't exploit the possibilities to their full potential, that's what makes the concept so exciting: that it's not a one-time trick and can be done more with him in the future. future.
Runner-up: Arranger: An adventure full of mystery
year format
personal computer
This is the most difficult award to present this year, since no format has really surpassed any of its competitors, although curiously none of them have been made ridiculous either. The Xbox range fell short of its initial potential, but STALKER 2 and Indiana Jones impressed. The Switch releases in 2024 were also clearly second, but only Princess Peach: Showtime! It was a real disappointment.
And while we're still disappointed by much of what Sony did this year, we have to admit that they had some great third-party exclusives this year, including Silent Hill 2, Stellar Blade, and our game of the year Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. . Ultimately, we gave the award to PC, as not only are most of the year's best games available on the format, but many of the indie titles are exclusive to it, at least for now.
Runner-up: PlayStation 5
Remake of the year
silent hill 2
You might be surprised to find that Sony's ridiculous Until Dawn remake wasn't in the running for this award. Instead, it was a pretty easy win for Silent Hill 2, which isn't something you would have guessed at the beginning of the year.
There was very little faith in the remake among fans, including us, but as soon as we were able to play it, it became clear what a good job Bloober Team had done; not only recreating the original with modern graphics and controls, but adding and improving the gameplay with new areas, new puzzles, and additional story elements that fit together perfectly.
Silent Hill has always been a very different franchise from Resident Evil, but now both horror legends have excellent remakes of their most famous entries.
Runner-up: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Best Music
Kunitsu-Gami: The Path of the Goddess
Another game that we didn't particularly like but in which one element clearly stood out as exceptional. Path Of The Goddess' action-strategy gameplay was very undercooked, but the soundtrack is fantastic, especially for how varied it is. There are multiple jazz tracks that are among the best we've heard in games in years, but there's also everything from traditional Japanese music to modern electronica.
Most of the boss battles in the game are a chore, but they are greatly enhanced by the excellent music, enough that we could play them more than once just to hear it again in situ. That's when you know you have a great soundtrack. Capcom doesn't seem to have made a huge effort to promote it separately, but it's on Spotify and we highly recommend listening to it.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Best narration
Metaphor: ReFantazio
They say launching a new IP is hard, but the trick to creating a successful one seems pretty simple: make sure it's good. Metaphor: ReFantazio owes an obvious debt to sister series Persona, especially in terms of visuals and combat, but it's in terms of plot and characters that it really sets itself apart.
Despite its peculiar approach, with an election in a fantasy world that has just lost its king, it manages to address many serious topics, from discrimination to populism, without being too specific with its allegories. However, it's more than enough to make the point and, coincidentally, given how long ago the game started, it manages to feel very current as a result.
The human (and other) stories are also compelling, as the game avoids being too serious and still has time to be a fun Japanese RPG with outrageous boss battles.
Runner-up: 1000xResist
worst game
Stranger things in virtual reality
Sometimes we don't like to give this. grantwhen it feels like you're kicking a game when it's already down. But other times it is a useful second warning that something is not what it claims to be.
More often than not, the worst game of the year is a licensed title, and so it was this year, with this terrible virtual reality 'game' that's barely interactive, uses ugly cel-toned graphics that make it look nothing like nothing to the show, and has little in the way of story. When the only thing a Stranger Things game does right is the music, you know things aren't going well.
Runner-up: Severed Head
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