We have our first GOTY announced by a guest poster! 2024 has been a big year for games! But, as we always say here, Game of the Year isn’t about just what has been released this year. It’s about what we’ve played and enjoyed the most.
Josh from Fullsync.co.uk has brought his GOTY winner today, and likely one of the first in the gaming industry to make such a proclamation so early in the year! This is what we like to see, courage in conviction.
Makes me wish I could make my mind up on the ninjarefinery.com Game of the Year already. Reading his considerations. I wish I could engage more in the horror genre. Because I feel like I’m missing out. It isn’t meant to be, because I’m too scared.
Josh’s GOTY considerations
When I was asked what my Game of the Year was for 2024, I honestly couldn’t have told you at first. I’ve played a lot of games throughout 2024. Nothing has really stood out to me, as a game worthy of being classed as GOTY, though.
If I was going off numbers, then 7 Days to Die would probably have taken the title. After being in Alpha for over a decade, the game got its full release this year. But having played it throughout Early Access, the full release brought very little new to the table. In fact, most of the content that fans have been craving is due for release at a later date.
That said, I’ve still sunk 466.1 hours into it.
GOTY shouldn’t be decided by numbers, though. It should be decided by thoughts and emotive response. The kind of feels you get when you find that gem of a game that you can’t put down. That you just want to keep playing, over and over again. Clearly, I have played a lot of 7DTD. More out of necessity, and a lack of having anything else I actually WANTED to play.
GOTY 2024
But my answer to the main question changed a couple of weeks ago when I picked up the Silent Hill 2 remake by Bloober Team. I was a little late to the party, due to being busy adulting through life. But when a spot of free time came up, I thought I’d go pick up a copy and give it a go. After all, anyone who knows me knows I love a good horror, and I grew up on the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games. So a nice bit of nostalgia wouldn’t go amiss.
What I didn’t expect though was to get as hooked as I did. My first sit down, I was going to play a little. Test the waters, and see if the hype around the release was real. 5 hours later and I’d already made my way through much of the town and may have slightly shit my pants when I saw Pyramid Head staring at me through some metal bars.
This game is an absolute masterpiece. Sure, Bloober Team haven’t crafted a perfect game. There are minor issues. And it’s a remake, so it’s not a new story. What they have done, though, is bring this classic horror to modern gamers. With a whole new generation gets to experience one of the early trendsetters in the horror survival genre. The puzzles, the tension, the atmosphere, it all scratches those itches I’ve had all year. Maybe it was the nostalgia, but no other game has made me feel this way in 2024, and that’s why for me, Silent Hill 2 has to be GOTY.