Game of the Year; Alien Rogue Incursion
2024 has been a bit of a slow year for gaming. There have only been 3 games that have stood out to me. The Tomb Raider 1-3 remasters from February were amazing and I loved them. Then we had Star Trucker in the summer which almost won this award. But then, with only days to spare, Alien Rogue Incursion dropped and stole the award for my game of the year. This is an Alien game in VR, something I’ve wanted for years! Ever since Alien Isolation cancelled its VR mode to be precise, which was mid 2014 if I’m remembering correctly.
Alien Rogue Incursion is a more action focused take on Alien Isolation, while in VR. It mixes the horror, the tension, and the action well. The Xenomorphs never fail to feel frightening even when you’re gunning down swarms of them. This is mostly due to how agile and deadly they are. If you’re at full health, then you’re only able to take a single swipe from their claws before your killed by them. This is on the normal difficulty, I dared to think how fragile you are on the higher settings.
On top of this amazing gameplay, we’re treated to a story featuring series regulars Zula Hendricks and Davis One. It’s also primarily written by Alex White, author of the ‘Alien: The Cold Forge’, and ‘Alien: Into Charybdis’ novels. They are my personal favourite author for the Alien series and seeing them have a chance to write two of the most interesting characters in the series was a perfect combination.
This game was almost hand crafted for me. It’s a VR game set in the Alien universe, written by one of my favourite authors, about two of my favourite characters. While I think the bugs and glitches hold this game back a bit, I just couldn’t not give my personal Game of the Year to it. Even with its short comings, I think it’s damned near my dream game.
Best Non-2024 Game of the Year; Baldur’s Gate 1
Last year I fell in love with Baldur’s Gate 3 and then went on to fall in love with all of The Forgotten Realms. Since then I’ve read through the players handbook, the dungeon master’s guide, and various other adventure and lore books. I’ve read the ‘Honor Among Thieves’ tie-in novels, the Avatar trilogy of novels, started to write my own stories set in the world, and gone back and explored some of the old games set in The Forgotten Realms.
While I’ve found some really enjoyable games, such as the ‘Icewind Dales’ and ‘Dark Alliance’, none have taken me quite as much as Baldur’s Gate 1. This award could really go to Baldur’s Gate 1 or 2, but I decided on the first one just because I loved the level of freedom it gave you. After a few tasks for the fine folk of Candlekeep, your dropped into the world of the Sword Coast to do and go where you wish to. Your journal gives you the guidance you need but the game is also happy for you to ignore the advice it gives you and go off on your own adventure. This is something even Baldur’s Gate 3 was lacking.
First time I played I failed to meet up with Jaheira and Khalid at the Friendly Arm Inn, like the game advises you too. Instead, I ended up helping Minsc try and save Dynaheir from a Knoll camp. It went horribly wrong, and I decided to reroll a new character and this time I listened to the game’s advice and met up with Jaheira and Khalid first, then went on to help Minsc. I love that this game is free and confident enough to let me make this stupid mistake.
While it’s showing its age a bit, I’d say that Baldur’s Gate 1, and 2, hold up to this day. Since you can play it on your phone, tablet, computer, all modern home consoles, the Switch, and the Steam Deck, there really is no excuse to not experience one of the best games of all time!
Worst Game of the Year; Palworld
This may be a controversial pick for my worst game of the year but I’m not choosing it to be controversial. I played around 20 hours of Palworld in January and early February on the Xbox Series X and found myself unable to understand what people saw in it. The world of Palworld is just, empty.
For those unaware of what Palworld is, it’s Pokémon, but edgy. You’re dropped into the world and shown how to build a base and then PalSpheres, which are PokéBalls. You capture Pals in these balls and then use your Pals to capture other Pals or work on your base creating resources.
There are Syndicate towers and bases scattered around the map. These seem to be the “bad guys” of the game. The Syndicate towers all feature bosses for you to take on. The bases all feature locked up Pals that you can free. But it’s impossible to tell what their objective is. Is it just to capture the Pals and imprison them? That’s what you do, so how are they any worse than you?
There are a few random towns but besides buying and selling stuff they seem to serve no purpose. The locals don’t do anything. Most of them will just stand around, waiting for you to interact with them, while others will pointlessly wander back and forth along the same walkway.
It becomes far too obvious within even the first hour of play that this isn’t a world at all, it's just a random map with objects and NPCs placed haphazardly around the place.
I will admit that the base building can be fun, as these mechanics often are, but it falls flat without a reason or interesting world behind them. The main reason I play video games is to get lost within fictional worlds. Films are a wonderful way to tell a structured visual story. Books offer a lot of the same advantages with less focus on the visual nature of the narrative but a more intermate relationship to our characters. We’re able to hear their thoughts and experience their emotional reaction to the events of the story along with them. Gaming on the other hand offers us the chance to virtually step into these worlds and explore them for ourselves with a level of freedom that no other medium can offer. Palworld fails to understand this and offers us nothing more than an empty world with mediocre base building all wearing the skin of an edgier Pokémon.
Final Notes
2024 has been a bit of a shit year if I’m honest. I don’t like to be a downer during these yearly wrap-ups but it’s just the truth. While Labour has managed to oust the Tories in UK government this has done seemingly nothing to stop the erosion of public services. Transgender rights equally continue to be eroded with puberty blockers now banned for all trans kids. Things only look to get worse next year. Within mainland Europe the right wing is gaining a lot of support, which is scary. Then across the pond Trump has won the US election which means shit will only be getting worse there as well.
Outside of politics, as much as it is possible to get outside of politics, things are a mixed bag. I’ve continued to have issues with my digestive system, which has only gotten worse. The pain was so bad that I ended up passing out from it a few weeks ago. Got a cool new scar when I bonked my head on a metal towel rack on the way down. My problems could be crohn's disease, but we don’t know yet. My right eye muscle is also weak and so I’ll need an operation on that to tighten the muscle up. That should happen towards the beginning of next year hopefully. Basically, my body is beginning to degrade and full apart.
All of this would be bad enough on its own but me and my wife have both been met with a lot of transphobia from the NHS staff and system as a whole. The letter from the eye doctor misgendered me, after I told them my pronouns. The hospital emergency sign-in system asks you to misgender yourself by asking for your “birth sex” other than your gender. I was there for a head injury, why is my birth sex even relevant?? Then we had a GP doctor question us on our opinions on J.K Rowling and her TERF bullshit. The transphobia on the news is quickly becoming an upsetting part of everyday life.
In better news, I’ve started University, for real this time. I’m enjoying the work, although I will admit I’m nervous I won’t be very good at it. I’ve just finished my first term and my first assignment got a 69 (nice). The second assignment was marked while I was editing this, I got a 76, which is an improvement. My wife is doing even better with her average score now being 93. She’s hoping to start her PHD soon! I’m so proud of her.
Which brings me to next year. I’ll be continuing to do my Uni, which I hope I get better at. Besides that, I’m hoping to get a dog to deal with my social anxiety and paranoia. The logic is, that if I have a pupper with me, I’ll be pushed to go out more to walk them and more confident while out because of them. Anyway, we’ll see.
Thanks for reading.
I hope 2025 isn’t as bad as I fear it might be.
