Whilst spending some time here at The Pixels reflecting on our favorite games of the past year, we’ve also taken the time to look forward! Here’s a smattering of the games our writers are eagerly awaiting in 2024.
Blood for the blood g– oh shoot, wrong faction. Speaking of shooting, I feel a tingling in the Warp as Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II approaches. I don’t have the time, interest, finances, or peer pressure to get excited for each and every major release this year, but like any red-blooded tabletop wargamer (past, not so much present), I can go for the 40k universe anytime. However, the thing that makes Space Marine II that much more anticipatory for me is the appearance of the Great Devourer, the Hivemind, the Tyranids and all the little, chittery, chitony, highly evolved death machines on display. I’m unsure if players will be given the opportunity to actually play as the Tyranid race, but even if that doesn’t wind up being the case, I don’t mind bashing the bugs with a chainsword and boltgun, anyway.
See, I used to field a Tyranid army. Even won a schlotzy amateur tournament with ‘em at one point! I was so into it that I had magnetized weapons. I re-painted the entire army twice. I still have a few models hanging about. Space Marine II seems like a way to make those models live again, if only for a moment. That’s the magic of video games.
I’ll be real with you all. 2024 has an incredible lineup of indies coming out. There’s likely to be something I’m looking forward to every month, but there is only one game I’ve been waiting twelve years for, and it’s not an indie. Sorry, my lovely indies, but my anticipated game of 2024 is Dragon’s Dogma 2. I’ve spent the last decade preaching for people to play Dragon’s Dogma, whether it’s the original or the Dark Arisen expansion. I can’t really tell you exactly why it’s such a good game. By all rights, it’s fairly generic. There’s just this incredible spark that hits in all the right ways, the little things that make the game shine through its genericness to be one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve been waiting a decade for a new story, new monsters to scale and slay, a new giant world to explore, and new characters to meet. Now I only have to wait two months. March 21st can’t come soon enough.
I am nothing if not predictable, and while there are a handful of games that I’m looking forward to experiencing in 2024, none are as high on my list as the coming expansion for Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail. While Endwalker did an absolutely stellar job of wrapping things up for the story arc that began in A Realm Reborn, with the patch story content after the base of Endwalker tying up a lot of loose ends, what they’ve shown of Dawntrail has captured my interest as we enter an all new story arc. With the level cap raised to 100 there will be a lot of jobs to level, but as with any new expansion the new jobs themselves tend to take center stage in that regard.
For the first time since Final Fantasy VI, we have a Pictomancer job, which appears to use interestingly-drawn spell effects done in a cartoonish, almost Splatoon style. Another new job that’s original to Final Fantasy XIV will be Viper, a physical melee attacker who wields two blades that can be joined together at the hilt for special double-bladed strikes; the stylish, sleek look of the job as shown so far is sure to be a draw for melee lovers.
I find myself playing the game less than I once did but I still enjoy it when I do, and I’m certain that what’s to come will offer as much intrigue as what came before, even if it’s an all new tale to tell.
Wow, there sure are a ton of interesting games lined up to drop in 2024, right? I’ve been perusing the lists and I reckon, out of everything on show, the Tomb Raider 1-3 remakes sound like they’re going to be pretty fantastic! The original PlayStation titles were all long, challenging and full of action, so if these shiny, modern remakes go the Resident Evil route it would be an absolute dream come true! Imagine running from that (frankly terrifying) T-Rex, powering down the canals of Venice in a speedboat, or racing across the Nevada canyons on a quad bike once more, all in glorious, glorious shiny modern graphics!
I mean yeah, it’s not quite as much of a glow-up as what Capcom’s survival horror veterans got (to be fair, there are few games more gorgeous), but in a way, this isn’t so bad, as it retains a bit of that 90s/early 2000s feel to it, and just watching the trailer immersed me right back into my high school years!
This year is beyond stacked (my 2024 list already has over 20 different titles planned to pick up), but as far as most anticipated goes… I have to choose Metaphor: ReFantazio. I never expected Atlus to pull off a fantasy setting quite like the one they’re showing us in this early reveal footage and I’m so excited to see how it plays out. Metaphor is the game they were working on years ago, previously teased as Project Re: Fantasy. Between this release, Persona 3 Reload and Unicorn Overlord, Atlus is looking to have an absolutely stellar year!
To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that I’m looking forward to with the current release announcements. I’m sure my mind will change with something, there just isn’t much yet this year that I’m overly excited for. Either way, of the announcements so far, I’d say my most anticipated is Sucker for Love: Date to Die For. As boring as most visual novels look, Sucker For Love offers the twist where your beloved is an attractive humanoid Lovecraftian horror. While I have not played the first game (but own it, yay backlogs), I have played the original game that was made for one of the Dread X Collections. It was pretty fun, and the trailer for the new game looks like even more horror elements are being added. If anything can pull me into a genre I wouldn’t normally go near, it’s trying to woo sexy Lovecraftian monsters while also being scared out of my pants. Which just makes things easier for both of us, really. Wink.
Sucker for Love: Date to Die For comes out February 14th, but you can play the demo for free on Steam.
After 2023 was such an incredible year for gaming, I have such astoundingly high hopes for what 2024 will bring. There are a couple of huge titles on the way in the next few months that really ought to get the year off to a great start, but 2024 has already promised one thing that’s making me more excited than anything else, and that’s based on a title and a couple of brief trailers alone. I’m talking about Visions of Mana.
The Mana series has been close to my heart since the very first Game Boy iteration, so to say I’m thrilled to see another mainline entry would be a massive understatement. Especially as the Trials of Mana remake was my personal choice for GOTY during the apocalypse year that was 2020 – yes, even over a certain Remake. Four years later, I am fully expecting to be just as enthused once again by a Mana title over a Rebirth. As much as I’m excited to see what Final Fantasy can offer this year, it’s Visions of Mana that I’m rooting for!
2024 will be an interesting one, seeing that I’m strictly focusing on my backlog as opposed to buying new games. That doesn’t stop me from anticipating the upcoming releases for this year. The one I’m most looking forward to playing in 2025 (yeah, you read that right) is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
When Rebirth was announced, I wasn’t planning on ever getting it. I watched no trailers, no gameplay, nothing of the sort. I did my best to avoid anything that could instill any excitement about the game. I didn’t want to be excited. I convinced myself that the whole Remake project was a farce and I wanted no part in its continuation. But everything changed when I picked up a PS5 last month.
The first full game I played on my new system was the upgraded Final Fantasy VII Remake. This time around, I played with more patience and with more of an open heart than I did during its release back in 2020. After filtering out all the noise and the chatter for and against it, I have to say that – despite flaws with the end of its story – I love this game. Not only that, Remake has also helped to rekindle my love of the original, which is telling since FFVII is one of my three all-time favourite games. With Rebirth setting the stage for new combat strategies, new and refreshed characters, and plentiful Materia and weapon customizations, I am very much looking forward to seeing where the unknown journey leads to.
What do you get when you take a forgotten animated series inexplicably based on an R-rated horror-comedy and revive it a la 90’s-style beat ’em up? The oddball that is Toxic Crusaders. How Troma’s twisted flagship franchise found its way to Saturday morning cartoons is one thing, but having that same cartoon now brought back to life in 2024 is bizarre in the most wonderful way. Perhaps it’s the success of the Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge beat ’em up, which injected life back into the genre? Maybe it’s the upcoming Toxic Avenger film remake, starring Peter Dinklage? No, I did not make that up.
Whatever the reason, I got a chance to play Toxic Crusaders at last year’s PAX East in Boston, and the game was just as fun as the myriad of old-school brawlers we all grew up with. Enemies from the film were immediately recognizable in pixelated form. The writing was absolutely drenched in sarcasm. It was a strange journey from film-to-show-to-game, but I suppose that’s fitting for Toxie and his band of misfits.
When the Super Mario RPG remake came out, I heard a lot said about how it’s a remake done right – one that keeps true to the spirit and vision of the original, much to the delight of those who already know and love it, while making it an accessible introduction to a new audience. Being part of said “new audience” myself, as I’d never had the chance to play the original, I was excited to finally have the experience, and to do so alongside friends who got to have a fresh look at a well-loved classic.
So I’m hopeful and eager to see what happens when the metaphorical tables turn, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door gets the remake treatment of its own in 2024. I have very fond memories of TTYD, and it frequently ends up in the rotating fifth spot of my list of personal favorite games (my top four are pretty stable, but number five often flip-flops between it and Wind Waker). I can’t wait to run around Rogueport again, poking around for all the secrets I remember (and those I don’t!), and hear what friends who haven’t played it yet think now that they’ve got the chance to. There’s something special in the chats surrounding a game that’s an old favorite on the one side and becoming a new favorite on the other – they’re some of the best in gaming, if you ask me, and there’s sure to be more of them coming in 2024!
What are your most anticipated games of 2024? Don’t hesitate to let us know either here or on social media!
See you in line outside Walmart.
