Here we are, once again, to reflect upon the year of gaming that was. Last year felt more…mixed than most with a lot of titles hitting the middle of the road with precious few really striking the heights that I’d been accustomed to from the year before. Looking back at my reviews though I’m struck by how many scores I disagree with, not even a year out from giving them. Perhaps it’s just my mindset, this being the first year when I’ve gone back to work as early as I could and the emotional price that carries weighing more heavily in on me than it otherwise would. Whatever the driving force behind that cognitive dissonance though I do have some strong thoughts about one thing in particular, mostly because it’s reared its ugly head here.

That’s the question of whether or not DLCs should be eligible for game of the year awards.

Low stakes, I know, but when this first came up as part of the Game Awards banter my gut reaction was they shouldn’t. The DLCs, I argued, rely so much on the game that came before it that to award them game of the year does a disservice to other, standalone games that didn’t have weight of previous success to carry them as far forward. Plus, given there’s enough DLC around these days, it’d make sense to have their own category for it. I haven’t changed my stance since then though but it was interesting to see that 3, yes 3, of the games in my honorable mentions list were DLCs. Worse still 2 of them were right there alongside this year’s GOTY, meaning I had to make a decision one way or the other.

So for me, it’s simple: DLCs are separate. They can stand with the titans in the honorable mentions section but they will not get the top 3 or the crown. I may revisit this someday if an example of a DLC which fundamentally shifts the game (ala Cyberpunk 2077) comes along, but even then it’s going to have to do a lot for me to change my general rule and not just make an exception.

Alright, enough of the preamble, what did this year’s worth of gaming look like?

All told I got around to 43 games, a slight improvement on last year. I credit this almost wholly to shifting more into playing games I wanted to play and playing less to simply meet the once per week quota. That did mean the reviews were a bit more lumpy than years gone by, with some weeks seeing me finish multiple games whilst there were some months were I barely managed to complete one, but at least I felt more comfortable overall in where I was spending my time. I did also get around to recruiting my children (5 and 3) into playing games with me although the results have been…mixed. There are a couple titles I’ve got on the boil with them in the hopes that they catch the gaming bug but that’s a work in progress. Expect Dad Reviews sometime in the future.

So, without further ado, here’s the list of 2024’s games that I reviewed along with their scores:

So, fun story, for some reason this year Google started sending a whole trove of people to my Mechwarrior 5: Clans review. Can’t tell you why, nothing shows up in the analytics that I run showing anything but the Android search bar sending them my way, but boy howdy was the engagement on that post hot shit. It also turns out that for 2024 that particular game is the recipient of this year’s wooden spoon, scoring a cool 6.0/10. That’s sure to piss off some of the more angry people in that comment section but eh, I don’t care. It’s clear Mechwarrior and I don’t get along anymore and I don’t think either of us are much worse off because of it.

This year’s honorable mentions list is a fun one, and I’ll start it off with those 3 DLCs I was talking about:

  • Destiny 2: The Final Shape: The culmination of a decade in a game could’ve easily gone either way but damnit, they managed to stick the landing. This did beg the question for me though: is it worth playing now? For some the possibilities of a new greater story arc will be enough to bring them back but for me? I’m not so sure. Whilst closing the book on something is always a bittersweet moment I think this is probably one I’m happy to say goodbye to now.
  • Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree: The progenitor of the whole “Can DLCs be the GOTY?” conversation. To be sure, it’s fantastic, but let’s not forget that the vast majority of what makes the DLC good is the solid base that Elden Ring laid down before it. To be sure there’s more content in there than a lot of other AAA games and there’s enough new mechanics in there to keep it feeling fresh but, at the same time, it’s not different enough that it could stand on its own.
  • God of War: Valhalla: If for nothing else than the ending cinematic, which is probably the most hard hitting piece of writing and voice acting I’ve seen in a long time, God of War Valhalla is just a fantastic add-on to the already exceptional base game. Couple that with the fact that’s it free and, well baby, you’ve got yourself an honorable nomination going.
  • Ixion: These simulation games with a core narrative that you progress through achieving milestones are really tickling my pickle at the moment. Ixion is totally worth the price of admission as it’s just so well put together with all of its elements coming together in aid of greater goal: building the best colony ship.
  • Helldivers 2: The rollercoaster this game has been on since it’s release is no joke, but the fact that it’s still here and not relegated to the pits of despair along with all the other live service failures is saying a lot. To be sure what makes this game great is the time you spend with friends playing it as without that it’s a middling grind game that I’m not sure anyone can enjoy for very long. With a bunch of mates though? It fucking rules.
  • Pacific Drive: A game that hits a niche that I never thought I wanted: sci-fi car repair. That hit of nostalgia I got every time I worked on the car, tweaking the build here, repairing a panel there, kept me coming back time and time again. It’s definitely not for everyone but for those of us it is for, man there’s nothing else like it.

For 2024 The Refined Geek’s Game of the Year is:

Had you asked me what my GOTY was for 2024 before writing this I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. To me everything kind of blended together a bit, nothing really sticking its head out from the crowd. That shows in the review scores too, with tight clustering around a lot of the higher ranked titles. However after going through everything, making the decision to exclude DLCs and seeing what remained Frostpunk 2 came out on top. To be sure thinking back to my playthroughs of it, I was hooked the whole time. The constant events, colony management and evolving narrative are just the right kind of crack I needed to dull my overactive monkey brain. Couple that with the honestly unhinged soundtrack which has no right as being as good as it is and you’ve got everything a sequel should be.

Black Myth: Wukong comes in a very close second and, should those review scores have been tied, I would’ve probably swayed myself towards it rather than Frostpunk 2. The difference I think comes down to how I felt when playing the games: Frostpunk 2 drew me in, beckoning me to keep going, whilst Wukong grabbed me by the balls and started squeezing until I hit the play button. Both enjoyable ways to get into a game, to be sure, but I can only be scaroused for so long.

Finally Monument Valley 3 rounds out the top 3, riding high on craftsmanship alone. It was the game I’d play when I didn’t want to game, finishing off a session of whatever I was playing and then lying on the couch to bash out a few levels. That says a lot to me, that a game can make me want to play it even when I’m “done” with gaming for the day. We’ll see how episodic content works out for this franchise as I now have the itch for more games to fill that “not gaming” void.

How’s 2025 shaping up then? It’s…unusual. I’ve grown accustomed to slimming down my review queue at the end of the year, moving things out as release dates slip, removing cancelled titles and then picking up new ones as they make their debut at the various trade shows. In this time I’ve moved a few titles a number of times, like 3+, and so there’s little hope for them. Others are aspirational ones, things I’ve been tracking for years that announced a tentative release date that they might hit and so they stay there until I hear otherwise. The rest of the bunch? Unclear, there are a few interesting ones, as there always is, but nothing that are blowing my socks of yet. Time will tell though.

Games, Review

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About the Author

David Klemke

David is an avid gamer and technology enthusiast in Australia. He got his first taste for both of those passions when his father, a radio engineer from the University of Melbourne, gave him an old DOS box to play games on.

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