Legend
đ A personal favorite. (Not necessarily for everyone.)
âī¸ Beat the game. (đ if I got all the achievements)
đ Recommended if you haven’t played it.
đ Avoid it. It’s terrible.
PC
Baldur’s Gate 3 đ
Finally got around to playing this in January. Really enjoying it.
Destiny 2
Continued Season of the Wish into 2024, and I started winding down on my playtime.
Played Final Shape and the first “Episode”, Echoes through the middle of the year. Final Shape was a great conclusion to the “Light and Dark Saga”, and Echoes was a good kickoff for the next big story arc.
The second episode, Revenant, also had some fun new mechanics and some good gear, but Bungie decided not to make the new weapons craftable. Once I heard they were doing the same for the next episode, I pretty much stopped playing. I might stop in from time to time to play the story, but I’m done with the grind.
Star Citizen đ
I tried playing this toward the end of 2023, and was able to play a bit more in January. I want to be interested, but so far I’ve found the game extremely boring. It wants to be an MMO where you wander around cities and interact with various shopkeepers, but I just want to fly my ship. In about 2-3 hours of play time, I only managed to fly a ship for maybe 10-20 minutes. To make matters worse, performance is terrible and it’s plagued with bugs. Hopefully it turns around at some point and turns into a real game.
The Universim đ
Universim had it’s 1.0 release this year and I hopped back in. If you enjoyed the early god games that established the genre like Populous and Black and White, then The Universim is a great game in that vein. It has a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor and spans from the stone-age to a multi-planet civilization with terraforming and trade between planets. It’s expansive but works incredibly well.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor đ
I’ve found that I love the “bullet heaven” genre, and Survivor is a great entry into the genre. I’ve played a little of Deep Rock Galactic and like what’s there, but it’s multiplayer-focused and I’m mainly a solo gamer. Survivor gives me a fun single-player experience in that world, with some unique additions to the genre, like maps you can alter by digging through the rock. Other than that, it follows all the typical parts of the formula: meta-progression, different classes, weapon upgrades, etc.
Forever Skies đ
A survival game where the world is covered in toxic dust and your home is an airship you use to explore abandoned towers. I like the exploration focus and lack of combat; there are things that attack you and you can kill, but they’re just territorial critters and not hunting you or anything. It’s a little bare-bones right now, but it’s still in Early Access, so I hope it gets nicely fleshed out as it grows.
Lightyear Frontier đ
A chill farming and exploration game whose hook is that all your farming is done in a mech. I love everything about this game: the “pop-pop-pop” sounds when rapid-fire planting seeds; how the animals react to your mech stomping around; the way your mech moves and operates; and just the general art style. It’s a lovely world and the theme is generally about restoring nature, which is a pleasant change from many other games. There’s little I don’t like here.
Balatro đ
A poker roguelike deckbuilder that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
Laysara Summit Kingdom
Underspace
Spiritual successor to Freelancer and checks all the boxes.
Manor Lords
Pioneers of Pagonia
The Invincible đđ
Picked this one up on sale since I enjoyed the Next Fest demo. It’s ultimately a walking simulator (a genre I don’t think I’ve ever seriously played), but I love the story and presentation.
Stardeus
Another one I enjoyed during a Next Fest, picked up on sale.
The Riftbreaker đđ
Played the new “Heart of the Swamp” expansion and collected the new set of achievements. Still love this game.
Spring Fallsđđ
A lovely little puzzle game about managing water and making flowers bloom. Picked up during the Steam Summer Sale. It’s short (about an hour), but has some really tough puzzles.
Bloons TD 6
I don’t think I’ve ever played the Bloons tower defense series, but judging from the “6” at the end, it must be popular. It’s monkeys popping balloons, which sounds like a euphemism, so I’m sure it’s some sort of inside joke. It’s obviously designed as a free-to-play mobile game, with a variety of things you can pay real-world cash to unlock early or just to acquire in-game currency. It’s a solid tower defense game, but I don’t like the “freemium” feel.
Dungeon Warfare 2
Started playing this for the first time after finishing all the achievements in Dungeon Warfare. It’s a lot of the same gameplay (which is great), with some new randomization elements thrown in that I’m not sure I completely enjoy. Still a great game, but I wish it was a little more straightforward like the first game.
The Room Series đđđđđ
I’ve played The Room in the past (I think on mobile) and I loved it. During Steam’s summer sale, the entire series was available cheap and I decided to pick it up and play through them all. They’re all fantastic games, providing a few hours of puzzle solving each. There’s a spooky story running through them that adds to the atmosphere.
Satisfactory đđđ
Satisfactory is one of my all-time favorite games. I had a blast playing it in Early Access, and it finally released version 1.0 this year. I beat the game and unlocked all the achievements in about a month, spending most of my free time playing. I’m hoping for some DLC at some point, but even after finishing the game and completing all the achievements, I was still building factories and optimizing things. Fantastic game.
Starcom: Unknown Space đđđ
A great space adventure game with shipbuilding and combat. It’s essentially a retelling of Starcom: Nexus, but with a lot of improvements. Looks great, fun to play, and an interesting world to explore.
InfraSpace đ
A decent city/factory-building game that essentially boils down to a better version of SimCity. Featuers some excellent road management tools, but it’s poorly optimized. And I find cars hold up traffic so they can cross three lanes on a superhighway to take an exit disturbingly realistic.
Parkasaurus
Ultimately a very lightweight dinosaur theme park game, like a casual version of Jurassic World Evolution. Very easy to play.
Star Trucker
Played during a Next Fest and decided to buy it at release. It’s just a trucking simulator in space, but I love all the details.
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster đ
I loved the Dark Forces series, so when I saw the remaster in a Humble Bundle, I picked it up and immediately played through the whole thing. There are some minor issues with the graphics and some of the levels have some annoying design, but it’s a fun classic from the Doom clone era.
Cyberpunk 2077đđđ
I came back to Cyberpunk after picking up the Phantom Liberty DLC on sale. I never finished the game years ago when I first bought it; got sidetracked by side quests and other games. After finishing the DLC, I decided I’d work on seeing all the different endings and finishing the achievements so I could call the game “done”. Love the game and I’m glad I pushed myself to see all the endings.
Medieval Dynasty
At the end of the year, I picked up Medieval Dynasty and started playing them again. I’d played both on Game Pass but I’ve been waiting for a sale to pick them up on Steam. Still enjoying them both.
Caves of Qud
Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord
Like with Medieval Dynasty, I had played this on Game Pass and picked it up on sale on Steam. I still really enjoy spearing enemies with a couched lance in combat.
Achievement Hunting
I continued my habit from last year of trying to 100% games in my backlog, and did pretty well again this year. I’ve listed these games separately, since they’re mostly older games. I didn’t manage to finish all of them, since some had some really grindy achievements that I gave up on.
100% Achievement Count: 24
My goal is typically to 100% finish one game a month, but starting the year with that goal, along with finding some short-ish games that were easy to complete let me double that objective this year. I probably won’t be able to manage this again next year.
Settlement Survival đ
Started the year off with a city-builder, surprising no one. Tried to get all the achievements by the end of January, but several were based on random events and took forever to finish. (Took an extra 80 hours of mostly idling to get the last two or three achievements.)
Achievements aside, it’s a fun survival city-builder with some great mechanics.
Rise of Industry đ
After Settlement Survivor, this was my next “100%” target. It’s a great little industry-building game that’s pretty easy to play with tweakable difficulty. Achievements were pretty easy to accomplish, aside from a few that were a little buggy and took some grinding.
Hardspace: Shipbreaker đ
I hadn’t played this since the Early Access phase, but it’s still as fun as it used to be. I especially like the “Open Shift” mode that lets me disassemble spaceships without worrying about oxygen depletion or time limits; I can play the game as the puzzle game I love without the pressure to get things done quickly. Though I’ve still killed myself plenty of times by burning myself to death or smacking objects into my helmet.
Planet: TD đđ
I think I acquired this through a Humble Bundle a while back. I love tower defense games, but this one is a bit basic. There are also some design problems; choices were made that directly oppose the tower defense design. For instance, it’s often more viable to sell and rebuild a tower for a better chance at a higher-level tower instead of just upgrading (“I could spend $1000 to upgrade this tower to level 2, or I could sell and rebuild it for $500 for a chance at a level 4 tower!”).
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Playing Planet TD had me itching to play a better tower defense game, so I decided to go back to an oldie; the original Defense Grid from way back in 2008. I’ve owned it for a while but hadn’t played very far, and getting back into it reminded me why: it has a very odd control scheme that I do not like. Your cursor is locked to the center of the screen and movements move your entire view (probably meant to be played with a controller). Regardless, it’s actually a solid tower defense game.
Snowtopia đđ
Got Snowtopia in February’s Humble Choice and decided to give it a try. It was on my wishlist at one point, but I removed it because of bad reviews. After playing it, I’ve found the reviews are justified: it’s buggy and has a lot of performance issues. It’s actually disappointing, though… There’s an awesome game in here that just feels unfinished.
Sentinel
An “interactive audio” tower defense game where you’re a program defending against viruses. There are various audio effects as your towers fire and enemies die that play into the soundtrack. The graphics are clean, the soundtrack is decent (if you’re in to electronic music), and it’s relatively easy to play. I don’t like some of the gameplay elements and the levels are pretty unforgiving (especially the bonus levels). I gave up before hitting 100% completion because some of the bonus levels are ridiculous unless you learn their trick and execute near-perfectly.
The Turing Test đđ
A solid first-person puzzle game with an interesting story and well-designed puzzles.
The Talos Principle đ
A decent puzzle game that has a few terribly-designed mechanics and late-game puzzles that cause frustration. The “playback” mechanic literally requires you to sit and wait for 20-30 seconds (sometimes longer) to give yourself time to work with it; late-game puzzles often rely on just-barely-line-of-sight. It’d be an easy recommend if a third of the game was cut. As it stands, it outlives its welcome and becomes frustrating instead of fun.
Orbitalis đ
A puzzle game about gravitational forces. It’s pretty but doesn’t run very well (30FPS max), and I prefer my puzzle games to be more deterministic.
10000000 đ
A match-3 game with some roguelike progression. The achievements aren’t too bad, though the endgame ones are very luck-based.
Megaquarium đđ
A pleasant little aquarium building game. Not too difficult, and the graphics are pretty simple, but it’s very easy to play and a lot of fun. Plus I love all the fishies.
Lumencraft
A fun action tower defense game where you mine resources and defend against waves of bugs. I played this way back in Early Access, but hadn’t touched it since release. It hasn’t changed much, and it’s still a solid game. Some achievements are really grindy, though (“Defeat 1,000,000 bugs”).
Strike Suit Zero
A game I’ve owned for a long time. Decided to play the “Director’s Cut” to get all the achievements. Still a great game, though the very last mission is a bit of a pain.
Automachef đ
A factory game about using machines to make food. It starts out interesting but gets tedious fast, and once they introduce their programming language, I completely lost interest. I’m a software developer, but I don’t want to deal with assembly-style bullshit in my games.
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
It’s like Bridge Constructor, but you’re typically building ski lifts. Though also sometimes ramps and bridges. It’s a fine physics puzzle game, but not really anything special. (If you’ve played one physics puzzle game, you’ve pretty much played them all…)
Artificial Defense
A tower defense game with a lot of manual shooting. I don’t mind player-activated abilities in tower defense games, but I feel like they should be an emergency option – proper use of towers should be the priority. Artificial Defense is the opposite, where your player abilities are the primary way to deal with creeps.
Puzzle Agent 2 đ
One I played and finished a while back, but missed 2 achievements. I’ve always wanted to come back and finish it, and finally took the time to do so. It’s a little dated at this point, but still a solid puzzle game.
Sheltered đđ
Another old one that I was only one achievement from completing. Had to spend a few more hours in it to get that last achievement. Still a great game. The reviews seem to indicate the sequel was unfinished, which is a shame.
Dungeon Warfaređđ
I think I played this on iPad a long time ago. It’s a fantastic tower defense game focused on building traps to kill waves of adventurers entering your dungeon. You can build fun combos and the physics-based unit movement can lead to some hilarious outcomes.
Demos
Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure (Demo)
It’s essentially Pikmin with factory-building. An odd combination, but it’s adorable.
Stellar Settlers (Demo)
It’s a bit of a puzzly outpost-builder. Interested to see how it turns out.
Stormgate (Beta)
Looks and feels a lot like StarCraft, and that’s a good thing. But it feels off in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.
Gods Against Machines (Demo)
A kind of “reverse city-builder” where you’re a god of nature attempting to destroy the cities of an invading robotic force. It’s basically Spirit Island if it was an RTS-style video game. I enjoyed the demo, even though it’s pretty simple and involves a lot of clicking. Would make an excellent mobile game on a touch interface.
Next Fests
I always love trying out new things during Steam’s Next Fest events, and this year was no different:
February
June
Board Games
Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
A fun two-player deckbuilder. I played Empire and managed to kill off a lot of Rebel heroes (Millenium Falcon, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca), while the Empire heroes came out late in the game and I managed to get enough to secure a win. Poor Chewie.
War Chest
A tactical strategy game played with some hefty poker chips. Lots of variation to this, but I think the suggested starting teams are lopsided.
Picky Pixie
A wallet game that plays like a very lightweight Mysterium.
Space Base
One of my wife’s favorites because she routinely crushes me. We’ve played a half-dozen times and I have yet to win.
Dorfromantikđ
Plays just like the digital game, but faster and at a smaller scale. Great co-op.
League of the Lexiconđ
A trivia game all about etymology. If you enjoy learning about words, this is the game for you.
Among the Stars: Revival
Thunder Road: Vendetta
Like playing Mad Max in board game form.
Canvas: Finishing Touches
The final expansion for Canvas. All the expansions do a good job of adding to the base game with optional complexity.
Evolution: Another World
Picky Eatersđ
Patchwork Doodle
Flamecraftđ
First played Flamecraft when visiting my brother in San Francisco in April. My wife and I enjoyed it so much, we bought it for ourselves.
Drop Drive
A pick-up-and-deliver game where the game map is created by literally dropping a bunch of components on a hemispherical sun, sending them flying out in random directions. Pretty easy to play, with a lot of options to shake things up every game.
Apiaryđ
A worker placement game about space bees. Very well themed and fun to play.
A Message From the Starsđ
A cooperative word deduction game, and one of my favorite new games. One player plays an alien that has sent a message to Earth, and the other players play a team of scientists attempting to decipher the alien message.
Wyrmspanđ
Wingspan with dragons. There are a handful of additions that make the game a little more challenging and interactive.
Through the Desert
Rialto
Scoville
New Dawn
Switchbacks
Onitamađ
A chess-like martial arts strategy game. You’re only able to choose from two moves on your turn, which change over the course of the game. Feels a lot like chess on a smaller, more tactical scale. Also easier to play, with essentially four pawns and a king.
Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire
Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure
Small World
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Spirit Islandđ
I love the theming of this game, and on our second game, my wife and I managed a win by terrorizing the invaders enough to leave the island.
CATAN Starfarers
Found community-created rules for a two-player variant to play with my wife (the game only supports 3-4 players), and they worked out really well. The little spaceship used to determine your “rolls” and capabilities is a little gimmicky but fun.
Earthđ
Ark Nova
Great Western Trail: New Zealand
We got the New Zealand version of Great Western Trail because it has sheepies.
Marvel Champions
Splendor Duelđ
Perspectives
A deduction game where each player gets a set of photos and have to describe what they see to everyone else.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
A Pandemic-system game where you play a hero from the Clone Wars era of Star Wars and face a villain. Obviously plays a lot like Pandemic, but you have various cards you can use to help.
Ticket to Ride (10th Anniversary)
Gravwell
Marvel Dice Masters: Age of Ultron đ
I expected this to be Marvel Quarriors (it’s designed by the same people), but it’s somehow worse.
Chai
Galactic Strike Force
Azulđ
Teotihuacan: City of Gods
Got the “deluxe master set” on Kickstarter and played for the first time. Being a euro game, there are a lot of different things to do that keep things fun and interesting.
Darkrock Ventures
Project Lđ
Tetris as a board game is still fantastic.
Android: Netrunner
Cosmic Run: Regeneration
Chronicles of Crime
Don’t Go In There
Potion Explosion
Patchwork
Votes for Womenđ
My wife and I love “non-fiction” board games; stuff like Wingspan and Cascadia that are firmly based in science or history. Votes for Women plays out the Suffrage movement like a game of Risk, with the Suffragist and Opposition players vying for support in the 48 states to pass the 19th Amendment.
The Opposition player can win by making sure the amendment never comes to the Senate, or by winning 13 states in the voting. The Suffragist player can only win by bringing the amendment to the Senate and winning 36 states. The game plays out over three eras, with the Opposition entrenched at the start but the Suffragist movement gaining steam as time passes. Once voting starts, any state with 4 “support” is immediately won by that player. For all the remaining states, there’s a roll-off to determine who wins.
When my wife and I played, I played the Opposition and she played the Suffragists. She felt she had a responsibility to win, and the game came down to the roll-off, which felt very intense (like watching election results). In the end, she won: 38 to 10.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
I’ve had my eye on Quacks for a while, and it turned out to be a great purchase. There’s bag-building and a lot of chance involved, but it never feels like you’re overly penalized for pressing your luck and busting.
Star Realms: Rise of Empire
A legacy version of Star Realms, with a few new factions that work with the base game.
Xtronaut: The Game of Solar System Exploration
The Castles of Burgundyđ
Bought the “Special Edition” on Gamefound on their second print run. This edition has some great upgrades, and the gameplay is a lot of fun.
Rebirthđ
Easy-to-play tile-laying game. At two players, it’s generally friendly but there can be some heavy competition for certain areas of the map. Has some interesting tie-breaking rules, which worked in my wife’s favor on our first play.
Decorumđ
My wife and I love Decorum, and we took some time to play a few more of the two-player campaign this year.
Azul Mini
Picked this up as a “travel” version of the “full” game, which we still have. Plays just like the big version, but with smaller components that hold the tiles securely. I could definitely see playing this on a plane or train.
Converge
Mysticana
