2024 is almost behind us. With four days left to it, we’ve decided to share our GOTY 2024 list. And I know. A lot of you are waiting for our Top 10 Optimized PC Games list. This will come out, most likely, on December 31st and before that we will most likely have the Worst 10 Optimized PC Games list. Until then, you can find below the games that pirovashMX, Spencer, Nick, and John enjoyed the most this year.
pirovashMX – Penny’s Big Breakaway
Penny’s Big Breakaway is a joyous celebration of vibrant, kinetic platforming that captured my heart as the definitive game of the year. Its clear inspiration from the peak of Sega’s 90s heyday—think Sonic Adventure and Nights into Dreams—imbues every moment with nostalgia while feeling fresh and inventive. From its gorgeously stylized levels to the way it encourages creative, free-flowing movement, the game feels like a love letter to an era where gameplay and imagination reigned supreme. Penny’s charm and the whip mechanic, which feels as iconic as any classic mascot move, make it a standout experience that resonated deeply with my gaming roots. For anyone who grew up with the magic of Sega, this is a must-play masterpiece.
Spencer – Virtua Fighter 5 REVO
Virtua Fighter 5 REVO! Wow, Sega debuted this not long before The Game Awards where they also announced Virtua Fighter 6. Some may ask why I am picking a 20 year old game as my game of the year for DSOG and one that was only released as an Open Beta. Well, simply put, it remains unsurpassed in the 3D fighting game genre since its introduction in Japanese arcades in July 2006, where I actually came into first contact with it! I then returned state side and played it, sadly, offline on PS3 for a handful of years before finally making the permanent transition to PC gaming only to await a port for many years! This game was part of the Sega PC ports campaign and versions of it have been running on Windows or Linux for years due to its arcade board heritage. I waited a long time for this and I’m an unabashed and unashamed old school Sega fanboy! So that’s why.
And… It’s still phenomenal! Playing Virtua Fighter 5 in a flow state the combat is incredibly fluid, the graphics still compelling and now with rollback for the first time ever ranked online play is very enjoyable. The game is still fundamentally the arcade title from 20ish years ago but the king and OG 3D fighter is back and feels better than ever, I suspect the intervening period from the beta to final release in January will be used to patch a minor Steam Deck audio bug and for some minor balance changes (Eileen’s stagger is rough right now). I managed to get ten hours on the Open Beta and have been in total withdrawals since. This probably should have been an early access release to be honest but I’m glad they gave people access to Virtua Fighter and I hope that beta introduced people to the franchise.
Nick McCaskey – Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven
This year had so many great releases, but I only played a handful of them. Of what I played, my personal favorites were Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is not the most accessible game, but I adored exploring the beautiful fantasy world and spent over 120 hours beating the game three times to unlock all achievements. Likewise, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven gripped me so strongly with its classic JRPG charms. See my recent review to understand why I also beat it three times to unlock all achievements.
You may notice a trend: I love quality RPGs that reward multiple playthroughs, letting me soak up every drop of gaming goodness. In that vein, my other mention must be June’s Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, which gave me a chance to revisit and finish the base Elden Ring game several more times to *wait for it* unlock all achievements.
My goal for early 2025 is to play simple, single-playthrough games such as the new Indiana Jones that everyone is raving about. But who knows; maybe I’ll get sucked into yet another massive, multi-playthrough saga. Old habits die hard, after all. Happy holidays and new year to everyone!
John Papadopoulos – Silent Hill 2 Remake
To be honest, I had a lot of trouble picking my GOTY. In 2024, there is one game I played the most and that’s Tekken 8. The core mechanics of T8 are pretty solid (and I really don’t mind its 50/50s). Its biggest problem with it, though, is the same one that a lot of online games have. Cheaters. I don’t mind losing online from better players. As a Tekken King player, I’ve lost to Kishin or Bushin players. And that’s fine. They were better than me. But when you see someone who can do perfect throw breaks all the time and constantly do 1-frame low/mid blocks, you are immediately reminded why you should have never bothered with it. It’s not humanly possible and you’ll never see anything like that in high-tier tournaments. Not even Arslan Ash, Edge or Rangchu can react like this. Moreover, Bandai Namco has done NOTHING to address this issue.
And that’s my biggest gripe with T8 winning my GOTY award. The devs have done NOTHING to improve things. No matter how many times you report someone, they’ll never ban anyone. No matter how many times you send them a replay, they’ll never do anything. It’s a shame really because T8 would greatly benefit from a kernel anti-cheat system (yes, let the anti-cheat scan your memory for cheats. I’ll take this over cheaters at any given time). And hell, I hadn’t even talked about Tekken 8’s major balance issues (Dragunov anyone?).
So, with T8 out of the way, I think I’ll go with Silent Hill 2 Remake. I really enjoyed Space Marine 2, Final Fantasy 16, Black Myth: Wukong, Hellblade 2 and Yakuza: Infinite Wealth. But, as an overall experience, Silent Hill 2 Remake is above them all. This is easily one of the best remakes of all time.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting Bloober Team to deliver such a solid game. SH2R retains the atmosphere of the original. It has similar puzzles and tells a really mature story. The devs haven’t made any changes to the story for modern audience. This is a heavy and dark game. And I love it. I really miss this kind of games that deal with such “dark” themes.
It also looks unbelievably beautiful. Yes, the game suffers from traversal stutters but this is a graphical powerhouse on PC. Moreover, the combat – at least on PC with KB&M – is great. It’s intentionally “rough”, but I didn’t have any trouble at all with it. I could easily shoot, melee hit and dodge my enemies.
Let’s also not forget its incredible ending. These days, most games end by teasing a sequel or DLC. Silent Hill 2 Remake does not fall in that trap. Instead, it gives players a truly satisfying ending. And I really appreciate this.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Always cool to see people enjoying games instead of hating on them incessantly. I think I'd probably give my top spot to Infinite Wealth for how they end the Previous Main Protagonists story and the development of the Minor Antagonist. Ready or Not, Shadow of the Erdtree or Veilguard would probably be my runner-ups after it.
to be fair, its easy to hate on weeb stuff if it isn´t done correctly and i honestly grew to hate jrpg´s for their infantility, but no one can deny them being great games. im still waiting for a +18 mature jrpg though with a mature artstyle. one day… one day. i think its common to hate on wokegaurd though. fck that game and everything its developers stand for. but thats politics not gameplay. i would consider fear and hunger 2 but i detest the developers obsession with r*pe for the psychological shock effect. too much 120 days of sodom gorey bunghole drilling as well. too edgy. but it would be exactly right from the atmosphere. its astonishing how far some go and miss the tone. either its edgy or its infantile. well unless your name is postal 4, then it´s both. which makes me miss postal 2.
I think anyone putting Veilguard on the list needs their head checked, everything else on there I can understand.
Its admittedly a pretty average/mid story but compared to some of the other RPGs I played this year I could at least appreciate the better companion developments like Neve’s and Harding. The combat being so deep was probably the biggest shocker to me and Im still kinda shocked it was scrapped from whatever multiplayer project it originated as. If the game had a multiplayer component or had launched as a co-operative dungeon crawler or round based mode like mass effect did, I think it could have been something interesting.
Veilguard is a better game and less SJW one than that tencent furry monkey wukong s**t.
Uhhh okay, neither of us even mentioned BMW…
to be fair, its easy to hate on weeb stuff if it isn´t done correctly and i honestly grew to hate jrpg´s for their infantility, but no one can deny them being great games. im still waiting for a +18 mature jrpg though with a mature artstyle. one day… one day. i think its common to hate on wokegaurd though. fck that game and everything its developers stand for. but thats politics not gameplay. i would consider fear and hunger 2 but i detest the developers obsession with r*pe for the psychological shock effect. too much 120 days of sodom gorey bunghole drilling as well. too edgy. but it would be exactly right from the atmosphere. its astonishing how far some go and miss the tone. either its edgy or its infantile. well unless your name is postal 4, then it´s both. which makes me miss postal 2.
Since you mentioned "im still waiting for a +18 mature jrpg though with a mature artstyle."
Though the former are technically not "weeb" games; just curious:
What do you think of Nintendo games?
And what do you think of games with guns (FPS/TPS etc.)?
Do you like them or hate them, or probably like one and dislike the other?
nintendo mostly produces games for manchildren OR the rare exception, fathers who play these games with their children. context matters alot. games with guns depends,. splatoon is a game with guns, but infantile as it gets and cringe on top, but ofc modern call of duty also is infantile and cringe, yet older call of duties, mature, gritty, antiwar even. my favorite genres are definitely FPS first, then survival horror of any kind. melee right next to it or building / driving. i really despise childish artstyles and endless soulless grinds though.
one weird thing for example, where it gets complicated and the lines blur is a game like northern journey. it has these childish yet creepy and unsettling characters in the game, but is a broody dark happysad mature adventure. its like i said to a friend once: its ok to have a babyface and be immature from time to time, at least man the fck up facing your fears and grow a beard already if the genepool failed you.
What would be a mature art style? The LaD/Yakuza games are pretty mature and feature a “real” style of graphic. I think a lot of people would recommend Yakuza: Like A Dragon to someone looking for a mature JRPG as you described.
Finishing Veilguard for myself, I think the game was just fine but elevated by the gameplay. Probably just sad that the combat system that they spent so much time on will probably be trapped to that for a long while.
also TL;DR warning:
since when is yakuza a role playing game? its a "open world" street brawler with minigames and side quests. would you consider throwing upgrade points into a mini gta (minus cars and guns) as a jrpg? and like a dragon which comes closer to the description of a jrpg, while wikipedia says so, because some entries are more so rpg LITE or like than others, i only consider them action adventures.
it is arsenine calling something like final fantasy and yakuza both jrpg. yakuza 1 to 5 might not be immature, the story very much isnt, but, like a dragon certainly was cringe at many points. but nerds think throwing a big brawley guy into japan and have him hook up with chicks and be a gangster and look mad makes it mature. or because the story was inspired at points from real yakuza stories. and thats what it is. a cringey comedy spinoff (like a dragon). the sort that people who are into rick n morty would celebrate.
but then again i also find it immature if people celebrate super model standards for video game characters stellar bladeCough or find the freedom of choice in baldurs gate 3 sophisticated.yeah sure, because fcking bears and kicking squirrels and banging cthulhu….. its cringe nothing else but its always wrapped in some serious alternative path. i guess people need comedic relief to not feel too overburdened while for me, i can bathe in misery for ages. hence i fcking love the stalker games and eastern european stuff much more atmospherically speaking or writingwise. its why atomic heart is the biggest failure since dying light 2. both were written by rick n morty watching dimwits, probably the same who wrote like a dragon and then decided, shiiiiet we need to focus, we are making a comedy show rather than a serious plotline!
humor that only someone who drank too much chemically tainted tapwater would find funny. not to mention the infantilization of violence in yakuza. you break someones back and throw a bike at him and it feels like you are playing super smash bros. what a joke. too afraid to have gore and physical consequences? if fear and hunger wasnt so goddamn r*pey and sexually degenerate, THATS what a bloody good jrpg should look like for a +18 market. doesnt needs dismemberment but bloody hell, there is a reason indie is the single last hope.
mature doesnt have to mean cynical or depressing like fear and hunger either. talking about other genres, there are a sh*t ton of visual novels sharing both worlds and balancing it right, probably because it takes an actual skilled writer to pull off a good visual book. it is just that most otakus and weebs have their brain fried by an endless wave of brainless content from overconsumption of tasteless slop. and the triple a market even if they try to make something serious for once, always has some clown in the back throwing the towel halfway through.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3984e84e9d7bd63d52702fd4bb440749b417c84444b98b41dcc96dc02ef458c.gif weak choices. let it be known i have never a goty since i always wait for games to be finished and i dont judge without playing myself but weak choices… were games so sucky in 2024 you had to pick mainly fighting games and jrpg´s and remakes? but from the few i played, i guess it has to be … rummages through steam and gog. ah sh*t. yeah, im too contrarian, all games have been 2022 or 2023. so i just say whatever. as long as my taste doesnt go into whatever the infantile sh*t above is fine. I guess, I played silent hill 2 enhanced edition since the remake is sort of a joke even if a halfdecent effort with faithful cutscenes and no wokeness…. was 2024 so lame i really didn´t play anything? yep. and indie was all from previous years but goddamn was it wild. silent hill 2 enhanced, signalis, northern journey, darkwood and so on and on.
I GOT IT. its a mod. thief the black parade. but its not a game. oopsie
Eve after watching John selecting Silent hill 2 as goty after stroking the whole year with Stellar blade https://media3.giphy.com/media/lQHGMrv4tfgVLzPT1C/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
Stellar Blade is not out on PC yet 😛
Don't tell me you don't own ps5 man
I don't, but I have a SNES, a SEGA Game Gear (with a modded IPS screen) and a SEGA Nomad (again with an IPS screen) 😛 .
Since some of my friends have a PS5 Pro, I've already seen FF7 Rebirth and Stellar Blade :P. Nevertheless, DSOG is a PC-only site, so we only have PC games for GOTY.
Nice. Chad as always. Happy holidays man cheers!
This is PC-based site man.
SH2 demake was a goddamn insult to the original. Even Metaphor: RePhagtazio or Prince of Wakanda: The Lost Brown would've been more deserving of GotY over that.
Care to elaborate?
I don't want to get too much into it as I've talked in length about this in the past and it's kind of exhausting to repeat many talking points, but the short version of it is that barring technical advancements, the original game is superior in almost every way.
Understood.
Yeah, nothing beats the original, but this one is quite good, imho. Nothing to complain about it.
Cheers lad.
Oh there’s plenty to complain about, even on its own. It’s not that it’s a bad game, but it’s not a great one either.
Yeah, I was talking about me.
I have zero complaints about this game.
First because I love the franchise, love they gameplay and love how the story is told.
Second, because they did a game almost identical to the OG, which is something rare, since today’s games are pure propaganda shït with no story at all and even looks like all early access.
My next expectation resides with Metal Gear, another franchise I absolutely love!
"Let’s also not forget its incredible ending. These days, most games end by teasing a sequel or DLC. Silent Hill 2 Remake does not fall in that trap"
its a remake…. of a game i found death boring that they decided to extend it by 3 times the length.
Which was awesome for us who like the game.
The fact that YOU don't like it doesn't make it less epic.
Game is amazing in (almost) every aspect.
silent hill 2 is objective NOT epic, this is not what the word epic means, also i think amazing games should have amazing gameplay, sillent hill 2 barely has gameplay.
VF5 was fun but after 3 days ranked was dead.
I'm surprised Like a Dragon 8 is not on the list 😉
DSOG list their games. You can make your own. Tbh Everyone can make his own list ¯_(ツ)_/¯
– some good fella here enlightened me with these words
He's surprised cause Yakuza 7 was 2020's GoTY.
Well John didn't choose Judgment games for 2022 GoTYs neither.
Stellar Blade, I borrowed a PS5 to play it, and Visions of Mana are mine. I have started a lot of games this year but I have not finished them and I played a lot of old games nobody would care hearing about.
My choices, not in any particular order =>
REMASTERS (Best: Can't choose, too many great ones!)
– Broken Sword 1 – The Shadow of the Templars – Reforged
– Half-Life 2 – 20th Anniversary Edition (does that even count though? lol)
– Red Dead Redemption remaster
– Riven remaster
– Sea Dogs 6 – Caribbean Legend (not a remaster, but it's more or less always the same game released, with improvements)
– Tomb Raider 1-2-3 Remastered
INDIE GAMES (Best: Fallen Aces)
– Balatro (Great new indie game about poker-deckbuilding)
– Deep Rock Galactic Survivor OR Vampire Hunters (I do enjoy these survivors games…)
– Fallen Aces (Fantastic light immersive sim)
MODS (Best: The Dark Mod)
– Football Life 2025 (mod of PES 2021, making it the best soccer game ever)
– The Dark Mod (actually old free game, but there are constantly great new maps/campaigns. Just look up "Fan Missions for The Dark Mod Wiki", there were plenty of incredible maps released in 2024!)
____________________________________
As you can see, AAA gaming is absolutely dead to me in 2024. (at least the new games)
The few remaining games that interest me are remasters/remakes and indie games. Besides that, emulators.
Speaking of which, it has also been an incredible year for EMULATION. 6th generation consoles are now almost perfectly emulated (7th is getting close), the Megadrive got countless incredible hacks and new games, PS4 emulation is progressing extremely fast, CHD format is becoming the norm for most CD-based consoles up to the Xbox 360 era, etc.
As for your list, I would agree with Virtua Fighter 5 REVO, but I haven't tried it yet.😅
But I'm a VF fan and I'm sure it's great.
same the soul reaver remaster is great. Best game echopoint nova, best mod? duke nukem alien armagedon got an update. Also check out thievery for ut, its coop thief. These days i only play indies and mods.
Oops, forgot about the Soul Reaver one, yeah. Great one.
And thanks for the mods suggestions, I wanted to add more.
I did download Alien Armageddon, I just didn't have the time to try it yet.
Thievery for UT though? Oow! Doesn't it feel very old now?
I remember playing this… 25 years ago?😨
I think that I eventually stopped playing it when modders worked on Thief 2, and then the Dark Mod.
I'll check the latest updates.🤔
fallen aces is fantastic if you like noir and retro, but the only problem is the devs say part 2 of i think 3 will take years to come out so it's kind of done at the cliffhanger ending etc unless you happen to remember it in 3 years when part 2 comes out and likely a year or more for the final part. How devs can say or plan that is crazy, a 10 year cycle for one game to be complete? We're talking star citizen, The long dark story mode etc type of nonsense there.
Nice to see you remembering the Sega Lindbergh arcade machine used for VF5, which was made up of mostly standard PC parts and running on an ancient Linux 2.4 based OS.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52ea615da5e153dec76a44c275905cadae78b5f835746e4c6633c4c1620032b3.jpg
And that audio bug on the Steam Deck is related to a recent regression within the Proton compatability layer, which should be fixed with the latest Proton Experimental build, so feel free to give it a shot.
I dont even know these games exist!
Silent Hill 2 is my GOTY following by Animal Well.
SH2 is easily my GOTY.
I can almost put it as the best game I've played for the last 5 years or more, such is the lack of decent games lately.
"Nick McCaskey – Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven"
Fvcking weeb!
It really wasn't that great of a year for new games imo Only ones released this year that were pretty fun was ghost of tsushima(a 7 for me at the most btw), Silent Hill 2 re, rdr1 straight port, half life 2 20th, and a few indies that I can't remember tbh I played CP77 with modding more then anything really, done with that game for months now though. I am replaying Borderlands 2 original but have definitely stopped playing every day or for a while at all now. Once I get a better rig I'll grab Stalker 2. Other then that I really can't see much that's all that great released this year.