Gaming in 2024 is going to be absolute madness! You have a slew of games that have been delayed from the pandemic finally releasing. On top of that, you have a bunch of other games ready to kick the dirt off their feet from the last generation and move into the next-gen consoles with the Series X consoles as well as PlayStation 5. So with that, we have a list of 4 games to go over in this article that you should keep an eye on in 2024. Some of them are big names, some of them are smaller but all of them look absolutely delightful.
There is still so much to be revealed from E3 to surprise showcases to GamesCom, the Game Awards.
1. Elden Ring
Let’s get things kick-started with everyone’s favorite Elden Ring which is arriving February 25th. 2024 It was supposed to be in January but that’s a good old delay got us. This one has been long in demand by its fans and the industry at large since it was revealed back in 2019 on Xbox’s E3 showcase, now it finally is arriving. Horseback riding, open world, tons of things that are familiar with the from cell franchise but a lot of it new. So players cannot wait to see FromSoftware tackle a brand new challenge in an open-world setting. The reason for that is it’s an evolution of their design.
They have a lot of open-ended levels that all interconnect. What better way to go than open-world? If anyone can remove the saturation and the fatigue I have from open-world games, it’s absolutely FromSoftware with their excellent design as well as the well-known difficulty of their games from Demon Souls to Dark Souls to Sekiro, Bloodborne. So I cannot wait to explore this brand new game again.
2. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
You think we just got one big release, we’ll be fine. Nope we’re not pumping the brakes. One week later Pokémon Legends: Arceus comes out January 28th. This was a dream come true for myself and many others. Hopefully game freak doesn’t let us down as I felt they did with Pokemon Sword and Shield. This game was so popular that many players, instead of playing on their own, hired semi-professional players in online games boost shops like this one. Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a somewhat open-world game they said now they’re in multiple hubs but to me, that’s totally fine in fact I kind of prefer that.
Still when you look at the Legend of Zelda and how the breath of the wild really evolved that series you could see the love and the care put into it. As someone who grew up with Pokemon and then fell out of love with it pretty quickly until Sun and Moon came around and then fell in love with it again thanks to Sword and Shield, I’m really hoping they nailed this one with an inspired entry and seeing the brand new 3d open spaces instill me with some level of confidence plus the new Pokemon that have been revealed. Again, as someone who grew up with the beginning of Pokemon, I cannot emphasize enough how crazy it is to look at blue-red-yellow and then see how it’s transformed here with Legends: Arceus. So I really hope that they nail this one because it’s a vision that many of us have been hoping to see realized for many years. It doesn’t slow down there.
3. Dying Light 2
Then we have February 4th Dying Light 2. This has been delayed so many times, it’s been re-revealed so many times. This is the date that Techland has settled with they delayed it from December 2024 to February 4th 2024 and now we finally can see what this parkour open-world zombie game is all about. That’s also surprisingly good in co-op by the way, I just got to shout out the original for that. Dying Light 2 takes things a step forward with its story where you can actually make choices and it’ll change how the world reacts when you make it. I thought that this was incredibly refreshing to see because it was the one part of Dying Light 1 I didn’t like. So even if the story sucks if you can do some cool stuff through choices. I actually think that’s kind of attractive for the game itself because you can trust at least that the parkour, the melee combat, the gunplay, all that will be fine, fun and on top of that adding co-op in it’s gonna be an absolute blast.
4. Horizon Forbidden West
14 days later Horizon Forbidden West, the first big PlayStation exclusive of 2024, finally arrives. This one was also assumed to be coming out at the end of 2024 and faced a small delay, so it’s coming out here in February of 2024. It looks so much better than the original when I look at all the fantastic PS4 exclusives that came out during that generation. I loved Horizon Zero Dawn but I did feel like it resonated with me the least as time went on. With Forbidden West it looks to address a lot of my complaints: melee combat looks awesome, there are a lot more gadgets and things to mess around with, verticality seems to be a big focal point here for Horizon Forbidden West. So all that combined on top of being set in
San Francisco cannot wait to get my hands on this one again the first big PlayStation exclusive coming out in 2024.