Community MetaCouncil's Game of the Year Awards 2024

[Le Pertti]

Welcome to MetaCouncil's Annual Game of the Year voting! Vote for five of your favorite games of 2024.

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Check out our GOTY's for past years:
GOTY 2023
GOTY 2022
GOTY 2021
GOTY 2020
GOTY 2019
GOTY 2018

Rules are as follows:
The categories for voting are:

• Game of the Year 2024 Award (main award)
• Best of Last Year (optional) (new this year!)
• Ongoing Game of the Year (optional)
• Early Access of the Year (optional)
• Best Soundtrack (optional)
• Best Old Game (optional)
• Turd of the Year (optional)

Rules specific to the main award:

• Up to 5 choices can be submitted (ranked voting without point):
  • 1st Choice
  • 2nd Choice
  • 3rd Choice
  • 4th Choice
  • 5th Choice
• You can submit fewer than 5 games, but you must submit at least 1 game as your 1st choice.
• For the 1st Choice, you have to write a short text to explain why you have chosen it as your GOTY. It could be a sentence.
• Do not submit the same game for several Choices of the main award.

Eligibility criteria for each category:

• GOTY 2024 Award:
  • Any game fully released in 2024 is eligible.
  • This includes remakes and remasters, provided that they are new to your platform of choice. (For example: Ghost of Tsushima new to Steam.)
  • Episodic content is eligible if the last episode was released in 2024.
  • As MetaCouncil is a predominantly English language website, any game getting an English translation in the correct time frame can be eligible.
  • As to be clear, you can choose VR games for the GOTY category.
  • You can submit games from any PC store front and Console and even Phones.
• Best of Last Year
  • Any game from 2023 that you played this year.
  • Otherwise the rules are essentially the same as for the main award.
• Ongoing Game of the Year
  • Any game fully released prior to 2022 which received content updates in 2024 is eligible.
  • New content can be in the form of patches, DLC or general updates, but not bug fixes.
  • This includes massive expansions, as long as it requires the base game.
• Early Access of the Year
  • Any game released into Early Access (or equivalent) in 2024 is eligible.
• Best Soundtrack
  • Did any 2024 game have a stellar soundtrack? You can now vote for that too!
• Best Old Game
  • Maybe you played a non 2024 game this year and it completely blew everything else away and you want to give some acknowledgment.
• Turd of the Year
  • Any game fully released in 2024 is eligible. We're looking for the worst games.

To Vote send a PM to me Le Pertti with the subject GOTY2024 and format you message as follows:

GOTY 2024
1. Game Title
2. Game Title
3. Game Title
4. Game Title
5. Game Title

Short Motivation for GOTY:
Your awesome text.

Best of Last Year:
Game Title

Ongoing:
Game Title

Early Access of the year:
Game Title

Best Soundtrack:
Game Title

Best Old Game:
Game Title

Turd of the Year:
Game Title

Deadline:
January 15th 2025

 

[NarohDethan]

dm sent

 

[Parsnip]

Good that the deadline is Jan 15, I still have at least one 2024 game I grabbed just recently that I need to play before voting.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Done, thanks Le Pertti for doing all the work for this.

Very interesting to see what MC goty will be.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I'm still trying to finish some games before deciding on my final list

Thank you for doing it again Le Pertti

 

[Arc]

Sent

 

[Ibuki]

Just sent my list. Happy New Years and thanks Le Pertti for your efforts.

 

[QFNS]

Got my DM in. Was a good year for games.

 

[edin]

DM sent. Back to work for me now.

 

[Le Pertti]

I was wondering about a thing, what do you all think about cutting games of that only have one vote? For example a game might have one vote but 5 points, but another game has 2 votes but only 4 points. Feels like the game with 2 votes should take priority right? Since we are very low on voters this year lol it feels weird that a game should be in the top 10 with only one vote?

 

[QFNS]

I was wondering about a thing, what do you all think about cutting games of that only have one vote? For example a game might have one vote but 5 points, but another game has 2 votes but only 4 points. Feels like the game with 2 votes should take priority right? Since we are very low on voters this year lol it feels weird that a game should be in the top 10 with only one vote?

I would go harass people a bit more in the main Steam thread first. Lol. Hopefully drum up some interest and get votes in to even things out

 

[Parsnip]

I haven't voted yet, but I will. I just started a game today that will be in my top5.

 

[Ascheroth]

Why is everyone so secretive about their votes?

1. Zenless Zone Zero
This is an interesting one. Live service games are constantly growing and evolving, and this one evolved rapidly, to the point where it was almost a detriment. But only almost: credit where credit is due, the devs did a phenomenal job reworking some of the foundations while also constantly releasing new stuff and the recent 1.4 release has cemented this as my top pick. Really fantastic conclusion to the first story season and great changes all around. But even beyond the newest stuff the game has always had really good and rewarding world building, a great soundtrack, lots of mini-games, casually fun and satisfying combat that can scale all the way up to giving me the same rush From games do with their boss fights in challenging side content, and above everything: the vibes are just immaculate. The city of New Eridu is just a super fun place to be in.

2. Infinity Nikki
Open world exploration game with a focus on platforming and dress-up instead of combat, that is just a delightfully good and cozy time. Nikki is a fun protagonist, Momo a great sidekick, Miraland an interesting world to explore with already a lot of intriguing lore and world-building, there are ton of outfits to collect and craft and the gameplay is fun too.

3. KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX-
There are so many games in this collection that it's a bit of a mixed bag, but Kingdom Hearts 2 alone makes it worth it, still a very good game.

Ongoing:
Genshin Impact
Looking back at 2024, while I can't say there have been any misses for me personally, there was still so much incredible Gaming to be had that those ultimately feel like a drop in the bucket. Still one of the prettiest games ever imo and the variety is insane at this point.
Curious what the hell 2025 is gonna be bringing, lol.


Best Soundtrack:
Zenless Zone Zero

Best Old Game:
Outer Wilds

 

[Ibuki]

My bad, I just totally forgot to cross-post it here.

GOTY 2024
1. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
2. Astro Bot
3. Silent Hill 2 Remake
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
5. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Short Motivation for GOTY:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth brought back the wonder of the PS1 era of JRPGs with a massive world map to explore, beautiful cutscenes and over the top boss fights. This is the game I spent the most time with this year, and despite some of the open world bloat it remains at the top of my list.

Best of Last Year:
Baldur's Gate 3

Ongoing:
Helldivers 2

Early Access of the year:
Fallen Aces

Best Soundtrack:
Silent Hill 2 Remake

Best Old Game:
Umineko: When They Cry

Turd of the Year:
Unknown 9: Awakening

 

[QFNS]

Okay fine I'll tease you all with the definitive and correct Top5.

1. Metaphor Re:Fantazio
2. Balatro
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
4. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
5. Helldivers 2

 

[Ibuki]

Okay fine I'll tease you all with the definitive and correct Top5.

1. Metaphor Re:Fantazio
2. Balatro
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
4. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
5. Helldivers 2

Great list! The only reason Metaphor and Space Marine 2 didn't show up for me is because I have not played them yet.

 

[Le Pertti]

Think I finally settled on my GOTY list, it took different shape during the year, hell even the number one was very low on the list most of the time, because finishing it I was kind of tired of it because there was just so much game in it, but now that I have some distance I think much more fondly of it and I appreciate it much more.

So here goes!

1. Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
2. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
3. Dragon Age Veilguard
4. Banishers
5. Star Wars Outlaws

Harold Halibut was going to be my 5, but Indy was so good that Harold fell off.

 

[Parsnip]

I have to decide on a proper order and check some dates for a few other games and then send the PM in, but my list will at least have Rise of the Golden Idol, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and Tactical Breach Wizards.