CapcomGames are weird again!Don’t get us wrong, 2023 was an all-timer. We got new Zelda and Mario. Armored Core and Baldur’s Gate woke up from cryogenic sleep. Alan Wake rose from its plot in the Video Game IP Cemetery, while Street Fighter 6 acted like Street Fighter 5 had never happened. But while 2023 was an unforgettable year for iconic franchises, it wasn’t a surprising one. Nobody was underestimating Nintendo, FromSoftware, and Capcom.2024, on the other hand, has been unpredictable! Our favorite games include a typing-based dungeon crawler, a surprisingly popular sequel in a totally different genre than its little-played predecessor, and a massive RPG where a reformed yakuza recreates Animal Crossing with perverts and garbage dumps. This is a year for the real sickos (it’s us, we’re sickos) — the ones who feel their skin tingle and their pupils widen when they see “7/10” at the bottom of a review. This is the person who doesn’t want a pitch-perfect remake of Final Fantasy 7; they want Final Fantasy 7 tossed into a cosmic blender and funneled down their gullet.It may be a decade before we see another year like 2023, but that’s OK by us. Without a classic entry in a beloved franchise released every month, there’s room for the new, the weird, and the unexpected.The games on this list will be sorted in reverse chronological order, so the newest releases will always show up first. We also have a short section at the end devoted to late 2023 releases we didn’t have the time to consider for last year’s best-of list. Our latest update added Shadows of Doubt, Astro Bot, Tactical Breach Wizards, Star Wars Outlaws, World of Warcraft: The Base Within, The Crimson Diamond, Cat Quest III, Fields of Mistria, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Schim, Closer the Distance, Hades 2, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, Minishoot’ Adventures, and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.The best games of 2024 so farShadows of Doubt$25$25Where to play: Windows PC, releasing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X Sept. 26Shadows of Doubt is a procedurally generated immersive sim in a near-future dystopia. Occasionally, someone dies, and as a local private investigator its your job to take forensics, question neighbors, and search for the killer. Luckily, you’re equipped with a corkboard, cards, and red string to connect it all. This game captures the joy of poring over a crime scene, pinning together disparate clues, and eventually slapping the cuffs on a suspect. This game is drenched in atmosphere; the voxel graphics and lighting make every city street feel alive. A fantastic experience for fans of the noir genre. —Cass MarshallRead More$25 at SteamAstro Bot$60$60Where to play: PlayStation 5You can tell Astro Bot is effusively charming and adorable simply by looking at it. Less obvious? It’s also rebellious. Levels are packed with creative gimmicks like time manipulation, grappling hooks, and jetpacks. But some marquee stages are comically inventive, featuring mechanics that leave you nodding and smiling and shaking your head, wondering how the hell the developers got away with it. —Ari NotisRead More$60 at PlayStationStar Wars Outlaws$50$7029% off$50Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XSince Ubisoft first announced it, Star Wars Outlaws has been boasted as the “first open world Star Wars game.” But it wasn’t until after release that it became clear how meaningful that distinction is. There’s something almost shockingly delightful about being able to get on a speeder and just drive through a large area in that world, buzzing by Scout Troopers after chatting up a local droid. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how incredible it feels to drive across a mostly barren Tatooine. Despite being sick to death of seeing that planet rendered in Star Wars, driving by a Sarlacc on the way to Jabba’s Palace is transportive, and gave me faith that some of the oldest planets in the Star Wars universe still have stones worth unturning. —Ryan GilliamRead More$50 at Amazon (Xbox)$50 at Amazon (PlayStation)World of Warcraft: The War Within$50$50Where to play: Mac OS, Windows PCWorld of Warcraft: The War Within is coming off a rough stretch for the 20-year-old MMORPG. Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands successfully experimented with gameplay, but struggled to execute a satisfying narrative. The War Within manages to reverse that trend, introducing civilizations and conflicts hiding beneath the surface of Azeroth. The new zones are a joy to explore, full of hidden worldbuilding and juicy lore, and antagonist Xal’atath is a worth opponent. The War Within is the first in a three-expansion saga, and so far, it’s started off with a bang. —CMRead More$50 at BlizzardTactical Breach Wizards$20$20Where to play: Windows PCTactical Breach Wizards is what happens when you tell J.R.R. Tolkien to write Rainbow Six. An engrossing level of strategic possibilities, along with a frankly unexpected amount of wit and charm, has quickly made Tactical Breach Wizards one of the best games of the year. While the squad-based tactics might give the appearance of XCOM, the moment-to-moment gameplay more closely resembles the excellent turn-based roguelike Into the Breach, with most missions lasting just a few turns. The single-player campaign is lengthy and engaging, but a healthy collection of challenge maps and unlockable cosmetics will keep you coming back long after the credits roll. —Alice JovanéeRead More$20 at SteamThe Crimson Diamond$15$15Where to play: Windows PCThe Crimson Diamond wasn’t released in the late ’80s or early ’90s, even though it looks like it might have been. Inspired by Sierra On-Line adventure games like The Colonel’s Bequest that were released back then, The Crimson Diamond puts a modern spin on the text parser adventure game genre. Created by Julia Minamata, The Crimson Diamond tells the story of geologist and soon-to-be amateur detective Nancy Maple as she’s thrust into a murder mystery deep in the Canadian wilderness. The nature of the genre — as a text parser — means the player has to be precise and logical, because there are near-unlimited possibilities to seek out in the game. —Nicole CarpenterRead More$15 at SteamCat Quest 3$20$20Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XCat Quest 3 isn’t one of the year’s best action RPGs on its own merits, purr se, but rather on what it represents: glorious, unfussy couch co-op. Rare are games these days that let you sit down next to a friend IRL to embark on a grand adventure of slashing and spelunking (and haggling over who gets the better loot). Any game that does it as effurtlessly as Cat Quest 3 does deserves a nod. —ANRead More$20 at Steam$20 at Nintendo$20 at PlayStationFields of Mistria$14$14Where to play: Windows PCNPC Studios’ first game, Fields of Mistria, was released in August in early access, but it doesn’t feel like an early access game at all. The game, which has been compared to both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Stardew Valley, has nearly 40 hours worth of gameplay — a community-driven narrative, engaging, affable characters, and an unraveling, magical mystery on top of the everyday satisfaction in gardening, fishing, and trawling the mines. Looking at Fields of Mistria, it might be tempting to write it off as a Stardew Valley clone. And in doing so, you’d simply be incorrect: Fields of Mistria is absolutely an homage to developer ConcernedApe’s masterpiece, just as Stardew Valley is an homage to Harvest Moon. (Another Fields of Mistria inspiration, too.) Fields of Mistria uses that inspiration as a foundation, but builds on it to create an exceptional experience that’s all its own. —N. CarpenterRead More$14 at SteamCloser the Distance$20$20Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XCloser the Distance is not for the faint of heart, and I recommend it with a hefty trigger warning for anyone dealing with grief. But its heaviness is not sensationalized; this game simulates the grieving process with accuracy, tenderness, and a willingness to delve into the ugly parts of loss. It plays like a life sim (particularly like The Sims, in that you swap between various playable characters), but rather than building a life, you’re tasked with survival after losing a valued member of your in-game community. Every character — even those you don’t play as — is fleshed out with needs that vary depending on how they deal with loss. I promise you’ll learn something about how to grieve or support others who are grieving in real life; I can’t promise you won’t be brought to tears several times. —Zoë HannahRead More$20 at Steam$20 at Xbox$20 at PlayStationArranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure$20$20Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PCArranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a refreshingly well-rounded game: The story is compelling and told through vivid, comic-like artwork; the music is beautiful; and the puzzle mechanics are like nothing you’ve played before. Move around the grid by shifting tiles, which loop around in rows and columns so you can traverse big areas at once and navigate around enemies and roadblocks. You’ll spend hours shifting the world around, finding paths and pushing items towards the end of each level — most of which are decently challenging, but don’t worry if you get stuck; you can always skip. —ZHRead More$20 at Steam$20 at NintendoKunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess$50$50Where to play: Game Pass, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XCapcom turns the clock back to its mid-2000s creative heyday with this very original action-strategy game located in an ornately illustrated, haunting zone of Japanese folklore. You play as a swordsman protecting a priestess as she dances through mountainside villages defiled by demons, performing a ritual to cleanse them; you also rescue and command villagers to help you tackle the oncoming horde of gloriously weird, shambling monsters. Kunitsu-Gami will remind you of games like God Hand and Okami whilst being as individual as they were; it’s a total one-off in terms of both its gameplay loop and atmosphere. They really don’t make them like this anymore. —Oli WelshRead More$50 at Steam$50 at Xbox$50 at PlayStationSchim$25$25Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XYou might first notice the striking art of Schim, a unique platformer that’s essentially a study on light and shadow. But its platforming meets the high bar set by the stunning art; you’re a frog-like shadow that’s been shaken free from its person. You hop from shadow to shadow — some static objects, but often shadows attached to cars and bikes, too — to make your way home. The throughline from each level is the story of that man’s life; it’s incredible to see how much developers Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman were able to achieve with almost no words. —N. CarpenterRead More$25 at Steam$25 at Nintendo$25 at XboxElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree$40$40Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XShadow of the Erdtree, like Elden Ring, took forever to finally arrive. But now that it’s here, the wait makes sense, as it’s bigger than a couple other games on this list put together despite being a DLC.Positioned toward the end of the base Elden Ring story, Shadow of the Erdtree sees you travel to a massive new land and face down some of FromSoftware’s hardest bosses to date — no matter what your power level is going in.The DLC stands nicely on its own two feet, but more importantly, it feels like the resurrection of Elden Ring itself, and the perfect reminder that it’s one of the greatest games ever made. —Ryan GilliamRead More$40 at Steam$40 at Xbox$40 at PlayStationStill Wakes the Deep$35$35Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XStill Wakes the Deep takes place on an oil rig staffed by blue-collar Scottish workers in the 1980s. Corporate greed strikes again, and the rig drills too deeply, unleashing… something. Still Wakes the Deep is a masterclass in narrative horror, with a sympathetic cast of survivors and a hideous, Lovecraftian antagonist. The game remains on rails, and the AI can be dodgy, but I was so terrified that I was afraid to push on any of the guardrails the game put up. This is a game that succeeds based off vibes — an incredibly detailed and well-realized environment, great voice acting and direction, and the fleshy and nefarious shapes of the monsters chasing protagonist Caz McLeary through the rig. This is a short experience, coming in at about four hours, but Still Wakes the Deep is utterly unforgettable. —CMRead More$35 at Steam$35 at PlayStationDestiny 2: The Final Shape$33$5034% off$33Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XDestiny has always been a series about potential. Potential that Bungie couldn’t quite reach, but players always saw as possible. The Final Shape was the true realization of that latent potential fans have waited nearly a decade for: an exceptional story that ended a 10-year saga, best-in-class Exotic missions, a destination built entirely off nostalgia, the first new enemy faction in years, and a raid that gave players the challenge they deserved.Destiny 2 is far from finished, but it’s hard to imagine anything ever supplanting The Final Shape in the minds of Destiny fans. —RGRead More$50 at Steam$33 at PlayStation$33 at XboxDuck Detective: The Secret Salami$10$10Where to play: Mac, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, Xbox Series XTo put it simply, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is an absolute delight. It’s got it all: cute characters and art, a totally goofy story, surprisingly complex mysteries to uncover, and a dedicated button to make the Duck Detective quack. Duck Detective plays out like a detective movie, when the down-on-his-luck Duck Detective wakes up from a rough night. He’s got no money and can’t pay rent, so he’s got to take on some jobs. And the first up is a lunchroom, workplace mystery: Who stole the salami? In your investigation, you’ll unlock words that can be used to fill in the blanks of said mystery, which gets more and more complicated as time goes on. Think Case of the Golden Idol or Overboard! if you need a comparison. Duck Detective is a charming, silly little game — it runs about three hours — that’s perfect for a cozy afternoon. —N. CarpenterRead More$10 at Steam$10 at Nintendo$10 at XPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door$45$6025% off$45Where to play: Nintendo SwitchPaper Mario is the weird alternative version of Mario that gets to do anything. Paper Mario solves a train mystery and becomes a professional wrestler. He gets the fun theater of combat; the complicated, satisfying timing-based attacks; and to be an object of affection for a mouse, a ghost, a goomba. All of these weird quicks already made Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door joyful. Even if you can recall the GameCube version perfectly, The Thousand-Year Door’s gorgeous 2D sprites will look better than you remember them. Many of the game’s rough edges have been smoothed over, and some of its jokes are even tighter than before. But its Switch remaster reminds me all how truly special — and even risky — this game is, and also how we haven’t seen another Mario title like it since. —Chelsea StarkRead More$45 at Woot$60 at GameStopLorelei and the Laser Eyes$25$25Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Windows PCI’ve played well over 30 hours of Lorelei and the Laser Eyes on Steam Deck, and even more time in my notebook. Puzzle sickos Simogo created a real masterpiece of secrets that pulls together logic puzzles, alternative realities, and math into an iconic black-and-white mansion. It’s a puzzle box with puzzle boxes of its own tucked inside. And then there are puzzle boxes inside those puzzle boxes. It’s a game that feels like it’d be very easy to get frustrated by, but Simogo makes it clear that all of the answers exist inside the game, be it in books, scripts, or in posters on the walls. If something is totally baffling, you probably just don’t have the right answer. Like I alluded to earlier, so much of the game is played outside of the game screen. You need a notebook — that’s a directive even Simogo gives you early on. I said this in my review, but I’ve got pages of scribbles that look like nonsense to anyone else. Honestly, they’re likely nonsense to me now, too. I’ve never played anything like it, and I’m not sure I will again. —N. CarpenterRead More$25 at Steam$25 at NintendoAnimal Well$25$25Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PCThere’s a haunting little poem recited by an ominous figure midway through the TV series Twin Peaks: The Return:This is the water and this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and the dark within.The series never elaborates on this; it just exists alongside every other strange thing you encounter. Maybe you will discover an answer that satisfies you. Maybe you won’t. You won’t forget it, though.Animal Well is best understood this way. A beguiling labyrinth of indelible sights and fiendishly clever puzzles, Billy Basso’s mysterious lo-fi dream (or nightmare?) of a game haunts the player with what it all could mean, if anything at all. Drink full and descend. —Joshua RiveraRead More$25 at Steam$25 at Nintendo$25 at PlayStationCryptmaster$25$25Where to play: Windows PCCryptmaster is for the weirdos. It’s been described as a dungeon-crawling, corpse-filled Wordle — and yes, that’s about right. The game begins when a necromancer reanimates the corpses of four adventurers who he’d like to use to do his bidding. You’ll do that throughout the game, but you’ve also got to regain your memories and learn how to fight. This happens through words — not stories with words, but individual words. So if you found a chest, you type “chest” to open it. The item inside is usually something from one of the four heroes’ past, and you guess the item with clues from the necromancer. To get those clues, you can tell the cryptmaster what to do by typing a word: for example, “lick,” “look,” or “touch.” It’s similar in battle, where you type your attacks — let fish rain down with the word “salmon,” or do something normal like, well, kick with “kick.” You’re typing while an enemy throws its own attacks, managing the cooldowns of the heroes while trying to recall what words you’ve unlocked. It’s a weird, wacky delight. —N. CarpenterRead More$25 at SteamHades 2$30$30Where to play: Windows PCHades 2 is exactly what it says on the tin: more Hades. Though still in early access, Hades 2 feels just as complete — in terms of the levels, enemies, areas, and abilities you can engage with — as its totemic predecessor, which arguably defined the modern roguelike. The only notable thing missing in Hades 2 is a conclusion to its narrative. But hey, no reason not to get a front-row seat now. —ANRead More$30 at SteamRimWorld: Anomaly$25$25Where to play: Mac, Windows PCRimWorld’s base game is weird and ambitious enough, but each expansion adds a new set of mechanics to further complicate the task of keeping your sci-fi colony sane and alive. Anomaly is the best expansion by far, and it adds a healthy dose of horror to the already brutal survival game.In RimWorld, players have to manage a community of survivors, keeping them fed, happy, and able to defend against mechs, raiders, and wild beasts. Anomaly throws super fun wrenches in the works — like a mysterious golden cube that enthralls your researchers, or a massive pillar that keeps cranking out evil clones. It’s a great way to add variety to RimWorld’s random events, and the expansion has given me hundreds more hours of entertainment in a game I already adore. —CMRead More$25 at SteamBuckshot Roulette$3$3Where to play: Windows PCWhat if the antagonist from Inscryption had a maw of jagged teeth, hung out in a grimy warehouse, and had a shotgun? Buckshot Roulette was an incredibly successful game this year, despite the short play time and tiny price tag, due to its compelling premise. The player and the dealer end up in a high-stakes game of cards, with the loser doomed to take a shotgun blast to the face. Thankfully, there are a handful of accessories that can shake up the odds in your favor: a magnifying glass, a can of beer, a cigarette pack, handcuffs, and a handsaw. This is a short, weird, and unforgettable experience — the sort of game that has come to define 2024. —CMRead More$3 at Steam$3 at itch.ioMinishoot’ Adventures$15$15Where to play: Mac, Windows PCMinishoot’ Adventures marries the Metroidvania genre with a bullet hell game. You play as a Galaga-esque spaceship and adventure through the land, shooting enemies down and collecting other ships to help you. You also collect upgrades to your blaster and new traversal powers, which you’ll need to best the game’s fabulous dungeons.It’s an odd matchup on its face that instantly makes sense the moment you put your hands on it, and you’ll walk away wondering how it took so long for someone to come up with such a great idea. —RGRead More$15 at SteamPrincess Peach: Showtime!$54$6010% off$54Where to play: Nintendo SwitchPeach takes the spotlight in her first starring role in what feels like forever with Princess Peach: Showtime! Not only is she the star of the game, but Nintendo’s March release pulls the princess into a theater overrun with bad guys — and she’s got to take the lead in each of the plays to save the day. Princess Peach: Showtime! is a simple adventure game that keeps things interesting by putting Princess Peach into different costumes with different abilities: Sometimes she’s a ninja or detective, elsewhere she’s a pastry chef or cowgirl. It’s exactly the game I’d love to have played as a little girl, while also being a game that constantly delighted and charmed me as an adult. —N. CarpenterRead More$54 at GameStopDragon’s Dogma 2$70$70Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XDragon’s Dogma 2 is a sequel released a full 12 years after its predecessor. It builds on and expands the original’s world and concepts, and offers a fascinating combination of action-RPG and party-based MMO without the rigidity that usually comes with those games. As a player, you can swap your vocation (class) as often as you like, and then you can fill out your party with pawns — NPCs to fight by your side that you can change out on a whim. Together, you and your pawns go explore the vast world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 — a world made even bigger by the lack of readily available fast travel. A quick trip to the next town over becomes a journey. You learn the roads between the big cities as you traverse them over and over. It makes the world familiar.It’s a world populated by a mix of low-level enemies, like wolves, goblins, and lizardfolk, but also peppered with towering cyclopes, minotaurs, and griffins. This creates a really satisfying mix of hack-and-slash combat that you flavor with whatever class and tactics you want and large-scale, Shadow of the Colossus- or Monster Hunter-style not-quite boss fights. And through it all, you’re tackling quests for the characters that populate the cities, with a grand conspiracy in the main story supported by smaller, more human conflicts. It’s intricate without being complicated, and one of the most genuinely engaging games of the year. —Jeffrey ParkinRead More$70 at Steam$70 at PlayStation$70 at XboxStardew Valley 1.6 update$15$15Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox OneI’d cooled on Stardew Valley for years before the recent 1.6 update, but was brought back to the game for that release. I wondered, like many others, how much an update could impact Stardew Valley; I knew the update was supposed to be big, but was shocked to see just how much it adjusted. Stardew Valley is still Stardew Valley, but developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone absolutely overdelivered. The update touches all aspects of the game, making quality-of-life changes like the ability to drink mayonnaise with new content updates, such as the Meadowlands Farm, which gives you chickens right away. I chose these two as examples because they’re illustrative of how deep the update goes: These two pieces work together as an essential early game strategy to move through the game more efficiently. (Chickens make eggs, and eggs make mayonnaise. Mayonnaise makes energy. An endless supply of mayonnaise means lots of extra energy!) Together, small updates like this make Stardew Valley even more of a pleasure to play. —N. CarpenterRead More$35 at Amazon$15 at Steam$15 at NintendoSummerhouse$5$5Where to play: Mac, Windows PCSummerhouse is a much smaller experience than some of the other games on this list, but it deserves its spot just as much. In Summerhouse, you use a set of lovely, well-designed assets to make houses. You can make houses in different environments, but Summerhouse is simple: You make houses. Every so often, you’ll unlock a new door or window that includes a character — a kid or a dog, for example. And you just keep building. Developer Friedmann described Summerhouse as a game about the feeling of exploring little towns and cities — appreciating the charm of an interesting house — on his summer vacations. It’s one of the best games of this year because it executes that goal so perfectly, letting you get lost in a lazy summer afternoon, too. —N. CarpenterRead More$5 at SteamFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth$47$7033% off$47Where to play: PlayStation 5Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is one of the biggest games this year, packed to the gills with areas to explore, activities to do, and plots to uncover. But it also offers some of the most intimate story moments on this list.Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most beloved games of all time. With 2020’s Remake, Square showed that it could translate a piece of the classic’s gameplay and story into the modern world. But with Rebirth, Square proved that not only is the studio capable of expanding that dream through the entire game, but that it could weave it into its own tale as well. —RGRead More$47 at PlayStation$50 at AmazonPacific Drive$30$30Where to Play: PlayStation 5, Windows PCThe most beautifully maddening game of 2024 so far might be this striking combination of roguelike, survival game, and station wagon driving simulator. Pacific Drive is all about making repeated, randomized forays into the irradiated, glitching reality of the Olympic Exclusion Zone in the Pacific Northwest, where some kind of massive science experiment went wrong decades before. You do so behind the wheel of an old car, and the core gameplay loop is all about scavenging the resources you need to fortify this old heap against the unpredictable hazards of the Zone.It’s a tough game, and runs can go very wrong, seemingly costing you hours of progress. But throughout it all, the deepening bond you have with the heap of junk that becomes your mobile base and extension of yourself is what keeps you going. This is one of the best games around about the love affair between man and machine. —OWRead More$30 at PlayStationBalatro$15$15Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XThere have been a lot of games that have drawn my eye (and my time) this year. The pure delight of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The nonstop hilarity of Helldivers 2. The haunting landscape of Pacific Drive. But no game has truly grabbed me in 2024 like Balatro. There’s just nothing quite like the alluring pull of a roguelite that keeps you coming back for just one more run.Balatro takes the bones of poker and adds roguelite mechanics and a healthy dash of math to create an irresistible experience in the “number go up” genre of games. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have with PEMDAS, especially as you unlock more mechanics that encourage you to break the game.The end result is a simple concept with a lot of strategic depth and endless replayability. Solo developer LocalThunk has created an absolute winner in Balatro, no matter how you pronounce it. —Pete VolkRead More$15 at Steam$15 at PlayStation$15 at XboxLysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior$20$20Where to play: Windows PCLysfanga is a single-player game for people who wish they were better about scheduling time for multi-player games. Set in an ancient kingdom, a squad of heroes must work together to obliterate baddies and solve puzzles. The twist: One player controls all the characters by layering one run through an arena atop of another. And another. And another, another, and…Each fight takes place in an arena crowded with too many enemies to squish within the fight’s limited amount of time. When the clock strikes zero, the battle doesn’t end; it restarts. Now, the player is supported by an AI partner recreating their previous run. Over and over, the player repeats this process, amassing a mob of clones that help them get through the level. The real fun isn’t the combat, but solving little puzzles that require multiple copies of yourself to flip switches and release powerful attacks at precisely the same time. In these moments, you feel less like a hero and more like the world’s finest choreographer. —Chris PlanteRead More$20 at SteamHelldivers 2$28$4030% off$28Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PCHelldivers 2 is one of the year’s best surprises, completely reinventing the approach of the original game to create a hilarious and addictively fun squad shooter that feels like the best Starship Troopers game you could possibly ask for.Much of the game’s humor comes from its over-the-top satire of Super Earth and its goal to spread democracy through bullets and hellfire. But Helldivers 2 also uses ragdoll physics and friendly fire to create hilarious moments during playtime, not just in the narrative dressings.And it’s just rewarding to play. With interlocking gameplay loops, satisfying shooting mechanics, and depth from the stratagem system and the game’s varied enemies, it’s one of the best shooters of the year. Don’t miss it. –PVRead More$28 at Fanatical (Steam)$40 at PlayStation$40 at WalmartLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth$25$7064% off$25Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XA sprawling RPG with a heart of gold, Infinite Wealth continues the Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) franchise’s commitment to earnest narratives about the power of friendship, variety in play, and ridiculously silly fun.Infinite Wealth’s story stretches across Hawaii and multiple cities in Japan, with a seemingly endless array of activities. There’s the usual buffet of bite-sized minigames: sports games, card games, dating games, collectible games, and so on. But the trio of the Animal Crossing-inspired Dondoko Island, the Crazy Taxi-inspired Crazy Eats, and the hilarious returning Pokémon parody Sujimon are fun, engaging, and deep enough to justify their own spots on this list. And they’re all just a part of the Infinite Wealth experience.At the heart of it all is sweet Ichiban Kasuga, always relentlessly optimistic and supportive of just about everyone, to the point that he’s repeatedly making his enemies into life-long friends. And while Infinite Wealth isn’t technically an anthology story, it has something in common with them: If you don’t like what you’re currently doing, just wait a bit. You’ll be doing something completely different soon. —PVRead More$25 at WootTekken 8$70$70Where to play: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series XTekken 8 is a smorgasbord of acquired tastes crammed into a blender and set to overdrive. with a clown car roster packed with edgelord OCs, babes, and bears. There’s a limb-based button layout and move lists that seem to scroll forever, with an entrancing backing track of pulsing, aggressive rave beats. And bears! Did I mention the bears? There are two of them.While the recent Street Fighter 6 seems to have been thoughtfully designed to be the most broadly appealing fighting game ever, Tekken 8 has set its sights on being the most Tekken fighting game ever. And boy, did it succeed! —Patrick GillRead More$70 at PlayStation$70 at Steam$70 at XboxPalworld$30$30Where to play: Game Pass, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XIt’s hard to find the words to talk about Palworld. In one single month, the game became a viral hit, selling over 8,000,000 copies in six days and becoming the subject of mass criticism online. Still, behind the negativity and the hype is the actual game. Palworld is a hybrid monster of a video game. Players will likely recognize the influence of several games, like Fortnite or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Despite all the different genres it pulls from, Palworld is a survival game at heart. You’ll build sprawling camps, explore a wide world, and do it alongside Pokémon-like creatures you catch called Pals. It’s still in early access and it’s not the most polished game in the world, but its rough edges make for funny moments with friends. If you’re looking for a light-hearted survival game to play with others, I’d recommend it. —Ana DiazRead More$30 at Steam$30 at XboxPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown Deluxe Edition$50$50Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series XPrince of Persia: The Lost Crown is so good at what it does, we might need a new name for “Metroidvania.” A Persiavania? A Metroid…prince…ia? Look, the wordsmiths can quibble over the exact phrasing, but the point remains: It’s a rare sight to witness a game instantly establish itself as totemic. The Lost Crown is initially just a competent platformer, where you navigate a byzantine maze-like palace with routes that unfold as you improve. Then the meticulousness of its assembly dawns on you. Utterly devoid of bloat, not a single pixel out of place, The Lost Crown isn’t just one of the best games of the year — it’s one of the best of the generation. —Ari NotisRead More$50 at NintendoThe best late 2023 games we couldn’t consider last year(the) Gnorp Apologue$7$7Where to play: Windows PCHit the boulder. Collect the shards. Research upgrades so you can hit the boulder harder, collect the shards faster, and research upgrades smarter, so you can… well, you get the point.(the) Gnorp Apologue is an idle game that looks like the games I played on my school’s DOC computer in first grade. But (the) Gnorp Apologue’s capacity to devour my day owes more to modern idle gems, like Cookie Clicker, Universal Paperclips, and Candy Box 2. If you haven’t heard of those games, please forgive me for what I’ve unleashed upon your limited time in this universe.And if you have played those games, you know the drill. Wish your friends and family well. You won’t be seeing them until you’ve hit the boulder, collected the shards, researched the upgrades, and decided to delete this file from your computer as an act of self-preservation. —CPRead More$7 at SteamAgainst the Storm$15$3050% off$15Where to play: Windows PCAgainst the Storm breaks the city builder genre in fascinating ways, focusing on the satisfying early game experience of getting your settlement going and using roguelike mechanics straight out of Slay the Spire to give you an endlessly replayable experience.The game’s interlocking systems make each settlement different — maybe your city has harpies, so you really need to focus on clothing, or maybe you have harpies and humans and they’re clamoring for biscuits. All of those potential choices have cascading results — for clothing, you need materials to turn into fabric, a building to turn those materials into fabric, and a building to turn fabric into clothing. For biscuits, you need a source of grain, plant fiber, or mushrooms, a building to turn those into flour, and a building to make biscuits (along with herbs, berries, or roots to finish those delicious doughy treats). All the while, the storm rages on and threatens the stability of your fledgling city.Keep your settlers (and the impatient queen) happy long enough, and you’ll move on to the next settlement. And the next one. And the next one. I’ve been hooked on this game for weeks, and it shows no sign of slowing down. —PVRead More$15 at SteamLethal Company$10$10Where to play: Windows PCHorror games are a tough sell for me, mainly because I’m a big scaredy cat. However, I have a full-hearted appreciation for Lethal Company, developed by a solo dev who goes by Zeekerss. In the game, you and up to three friends mobilize as beleaguered workers who scrounge up resources from alien planets to sell back to their employer and make quota. As you explore these alien locales, it’s up to you and your group to evade the scourge of each biome’s many horrifying monsters.Lethal Company is an absolute riot. The game might contain jump scares, but it also really leans into slapstick antics. Accidental deaths are a dime a dozen in its twisting metal corridors, and so are the laughs. For me, these comedic elements helped make it more approachable as a horror game. The one drawback is that you pretty much need a group of four to play and even then, the game can be pretty tough. Seek employment there at your own risk! —ADRead More$10 at Steam