The most exciting games of 2024

Hello! A new year, a new slate of games to look forward to. Shall we do this all over again? Why not!

In amongst the remakes and sequels, there’s plenty of genuinely new stuff to look forward to in 2024. Naiad promises to take us all wild swimming, for starters, and then Animal Well promises to… actually, we’re not entirely sure, but we’re up for it anyway.

There’s range, oddness, and some pleasant returning faces, then. And the best thing, as ever, is all the games we don’t even know about yet. We hope you have a wonderful 2024, whatever you play, and whatever you get up to.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered

Release date: 14th January 2024
Platforms: PS5

Another Sony remaster, but this one features an intriguing new mode. No Return strings together random encounters offering players a sort of survival roguelike. Fascinating at least to see Naughty Dog giving up just a tiny bit of control.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Release date: 26th January
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Besides having perhaps the greatest video game title in recent memory, Infinite Wealth also takes Sega’s series to Hawaii for more turn-based action and mini-games. This one is a very easy sell. We’re in.

Tekken 8

Release date: 26th January 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Hopefully they’ll take out the colour-blind option that may cause seizures before this one comes out. Aside from that there are redesigned heroes and a new “heat” system, and we very much enjoyed it in our Tekken 8 preview.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Release date: 13th February 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

A love story riddled with player decisions, this is Don’t Nod on home territory. But throw in ghosts and action-RPG elements and you have something that could well offer a few surprises, too.

Tomb Raider 1-2-3 Remastered

Lara Croft in Tomb Raider 1, 2, and 3 Remastered — She’s back! Tomb Raider 1-2-3 Remastered. | Image credit: Nintendo

Release date: 14th February 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

Hooray! The classic Core trilogy returns in this remastered collection of some of the best Tomb Raider games out there. Tomb Raider 2 alone is justification for buying this day one. The question is: has it all been treated with care?

Skull and Bones

Release date: 16th February 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Ubisoft’s pirate adventure is almost here, after years of haunting E3 and propping up lists of vapourware. Rise through the ranks of piratedom as you explore beautiful ocean vistas. Could be brilliant?

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Release date: 16th February 2024
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Nintendo’s puzzley classic gets an update as you use your brain and a collection of wind-up Marios to overcome various complex platforming stages. These games are ingenious and morish, and we doubt that’s changed much here.

Pacific Drive

Release date: 22nd February
Platforms: PC, PS5

This is an interesting mix of the familiar and the sort of unexpected. You’re exploring a cursed Stalker-style Zone where odd experiments have muddled with reality in dangerous ways. But you’re also keeping your 80s station wagon alive as you go, hunting for parts, crafting new fenders and bonnets and worrying a lot about the state of your tyres. It’s Roadside Picnic meets My Summer Car and we’re here for it.

Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster

Release date: 28th February
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

Nightdive is bringing one of the more beloved Star Wars games back to life here. Dark Forces is a first-person shooter set within the Rebel Alliance’s covert division. Parts of the plot were retconned by Rogue One, if memory serves, but it will be a pleasure to play through it again.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Release date: 29th February 2024
Platforms: PS5

Rebirth is the second part of a trilogy that remakes – and also reimagines – Final Fantasy 7. Expect plenty of surprises along with all the familiar Final Fantasy trappings. Lovely combat too, of course – read more in our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preview

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Moody promotional art for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion seemingly showing Miquella riding through fields of wheat on the back of Torrent. — Promotional art is really all we have to go on. What could it mean? Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. | Image credit: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

Autocorrect tried to change the name to Nerdtree, which amused me, but there’s nothing nerdy about the star power of Elden Ring, nor about the prospect of an expansion. We’ve only had scraps of information to go on. It seems to take place in a world where the Erdtree is corrupted, but why, and whose world is it? The date is not concrete either but based on a retailer leak. Fingers crossed.

Homeworld 3

A gorgeous image of light breaking over the top of some massive space structure - a wreckage of some kind - and four craft are flying from the top of the image towards it, leaving blue trails in their wake. — The sense of scale in Homeworld 3 is terrific.

Release date: February 2024
Platforms: PC

Bertie played Homeworld 3 in 2022 and was really impressed – a legendary space strategy series looked better than ever. But then it got held up in development and missed 2023. Still, good things come to those who wait, and now the wait is nearly over.

Life by You

Release date: Early Access on 5th March
Platforms: PC

Paradox does The Sims, promising an open-world and total control of the humans you create. Luckily, the game’s launching in Early Access, so there’s a bit of time to iron out any quirks.

Alone in the Dark

Emily Hartwood and Edward Carnby (played by Jodie Comer and David Harbour respectively) in a car as Carnby drives in the opening of Alone in the Dark — This one’s got Jodie Comer and David Harbour in it. These characters are supposed to look like them. Alone in the Dark. | Image credit: Eurogamer / THQ Nordic

Release date: 20th March 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Southern Gothic with an all-star cast, this is also the return to one of the more venerable series in games. Pick a hero, ready your weapons and fight your way through horrible haunted environments. Fingers crossed for this one.

Dragon’s Dogma 2

Release date: 22nd March 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Capcom’s party-based action RPG series is back. It’s bigger, it’s got more monsters, and apparently – according to Ian, who’s played it – Dragon’s Dogma 2 is still as rough and ready as ever. But also: as entertaining as ever too.

Princess Peach: Showtime

Release date: 22nd March 2024
Platforms: Switch

Princess Peach hops through different identities and genres in this fascinating looking game set within a series of different stage plays. It’s just the kind of cheerful oddity you’d expect as the Switch bows out itself.

Synergy

A diagonal-down view of a cartoon-like city builder, except the buildings here are low-tech and somewhat alien, almost as if they were pulled from Nikolodeon children's TV show. — Pretty! Synergy. | Image credit: Leikir Studio

Release date: Q1 2024
Platforms: PC

Another looker, Synergy applies a lovely pastel palette and Moebius’ scratchy comic book lines to the city-builder genre, but what caught our eye here is the emphasis on understanding your environment. You’ll need to scan plantlife and adapt as you look to protect your citizens on a hostile planet.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

A masculine character stands facing the viewer, on top of a tall building overlooking what appears to be the Chernobyl power plant. — Don’t step back! Stalker 2. | Image credit: GSC Game World

Release date: Q1 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

Surely one of the most widely anticipated games on this list, Stalker 2 is the follow-up to the cult classic, from Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. Victim of Russian hacks, studio fires, more Russian cyberattacks, a staff going to war, and some good old fashioned development hell, there’s a heck of a story to this game. It’s worth giving Bertie’s wonderful feature a read on the American originally sent to save Stalker.

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

Release date: Q1 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S

You had us at Moomins, frankly. This is a musical puzzley adventure for the whole family apparently, though the mention of stealth sections is a little concerning. Here’s what we thought of a recent Snufkin demo

Hyper Light Breaker

An anthropomorphic cat-person boss of some kind stands in the centre of the image, roaring up to the sky, giant flaming sword in hand. Two characters, just out of the picture on the left and right of the screen, look on. They have a showdown at hand. — Roar! Hyper Light Breaker. | Image credit: Heart Machine

Release date: Early Access in early 2024
Platforms: PC

This is the fully 3D rogue-lite follow up to the acclaimed 2016 game Hyper Light Drifter, and it’s one we’ve been waiting on for a while. Early Access is now pinned to begin early this year, at which point we’ll get to see what 3D and co-op bring to the idea.

Europa

A boy stands in the snow, looking up at a flying creature of some kind, made up of three large circular blobs. It could be a machine. The whole scene is drawn in the same way a Studio Ghibli animation would be - in bright but softened colours, as if almost water coloured. — Phwoar! Europa. | Image credit: Novadust Entertainment

Release date: 16th April 2024
Platforms: PC (consoles TBC)

For some, you need only get halfway through “Ghibl-” before a game gets added to the wishlist, but this one does have some pedigree, coming from the world art director of Overwatch 2, Helder Pinto, and new studio Novadust Entertainment. Described as a “peaceful game of adventure, exploration and meditation,” this one looks to be all about movement and atmosphere. From trailers alone, it looks like one of the most successful adoptions of that wistful animation style since the first Ni No Kuni.

Manor Lords

A cluster of thatched and daubed medieval houses stand in a countryside of deep green grass and blue but cloudy skies. — Managing your villages and towns is only one part of Manor Lords. The other: battle. | Image credit: Slavic Magic

Release date: 26th April 2024
Platforms: PC (Early Access), Xbox consoles “coming soon”

Mediaeval city-building, Total War-style tactical battles, and “complex economic simulation” combine to give off some strong Mount and Blade vibes here. Or maybe Banished, or really a few of these all mashed together. It has us interested, and by the looks of things a large chunk of Steam’s user base is too.

Still Wakes the Deep

Release date: Early 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)

Still Wakes the Deep is the perfect TikTok game in many ways. It’s horror, it has a distinct backrooms aesthetic, and it’s set on an old oil rig where things are going mysteriously awry. Even without a story or set-pieces this would be a wonderful place to poke around in. Cannot wait.

Harold Halibut

Two stop-motion models of men stand behind the window of a post office counter. It's all dinky and handmade, with squiggled writing and many letters giving the place character. — But will it get the Eurogamer stamp of approval? Sorry. Harold Halibut. | Image credit: Slow Bros.

Release date: Early 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass), PS4, PS5

Using genuine, Aardman-style stop-motion sculptures for animation, Harold Halibut looks utterly extraordinary. In fact we just booted up the official site to have a quick read up on it and were greeted by a quote from Elijah Wood saying “Holy shit, this looks extraordinary!”, so there you have it. It’s a narrative game about life on a spaceship stuck under the ocean, and just look at it. Tactile, intimate, sumptuously lit. We can’t wait to play it.

Farthest Frontier

A tiny village in a much larger forest. A panel shows the details of a child living there. — Oh I want to go back there! Farthest Frontier.

Release date: Out in Early Access now, 1.0 release early 2024
Platforms: PC

Bertie was impressed with Farthest Frontier when he played it in 2022. It’s a city-building game that’s about striking out on the American frontiers and taming a wilderness to make a new home. What makes it different is that it’s very zoomed in. It’s about individuals and slow progression. And after a year-and-a-half in Early Access, it’s nearly ready to emerge in full.

Animal Well

Two creepy, pixelated illusions, almost, of cats form in the background of a 2D platforming level. They're smiling but it's unsettling for sure. — Here kitty kitty. Animal Well. | Image credit: Shared Memory

Release date: Early 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch

2024’s Spelunky? Animal Well is possibly far stranger than that, an ingenious and atmospheric game of exploration and discovery, that promises to be riddled with weird secrets.

Dustborn

A group of characters as seen through the windows of a car. They are a ragtag bunch, as the game tells us. One is dark, one is pale, one has bright coloured hair, another lots of bling. The drive is, for some reason, mimicking choking themselves. — They look like a friendly bunch. Dustborn. | Image credit: Gearbox

Release date: Early 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

A road trip across a near-future America is the setting for this story-driven action-adventure. The big gimmick here is that words have power, allowing you to change the course of the story but also smack people around in battle.

Flock

Release date: Spring 2024
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch

Flock is the next game from Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg, the team behind Hohokum, I Am Dead, and Wilmot’s Warehouse. A multiplayer co-op game about, it says here, “the joy of flight and collecting adorable flying creatures with your friends” – what a delight. Be sure to read Victoria’s wonderful interview with Flock’s Richard Hogg himself.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

A screenshot from Destiny 2's The Final Shape expansion showing a Hunter wielding a knife as part of the new Storm's Edge Super. — Knife to see you again! The Final Shape expansion for Destiny 2. | Image credit: Bungie

Release date: 4th June 2024
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Despite a subtitle sounding like some kind of horror adaptation of Sesame Street, this is surely the most exciting Destiny 2 expansion since, well, probably the time Destiny 2 came out. This is because it’s about gigantic space triangles (we’re going to assume the final shape is “triangle” off the back of this), which will presumably interact with Destiny’s first shape, Big Circle.

Path of Exile 2

Release date: closed beta testing begins 7th June
Platforms: PC

The story of Path of Exile is of a newcomer studio conquering a genre, and now a sequel is on the way – one powered by experience and resources and development time the original game did not have. What Grinding Gear Games has shown so far looks detailed and challenging and deep. This is a studio that knows what it does best, doing what it does best. Expect great things.

Frostpunk 2

Release date: First-half 2024
Platforms: PC, with consoles TBC but expected

Frostpunk 1 remains one of the most thrilling city-building experiences we’ve ever had. It was a race to bolster your city against apocalyptic cold while also not starving and not facing mutiny. It was hard and that was the point, because the temptation was always there to pass tyrannical laws to alleviate the strain. How horrible would you have to be? How far would you go?

Now, Frostpunk is back, with a new game engine, and bigger and broader in every sense. This time, though, simple survival isn’t the only goal. This time you have societal growth and dissenting factions within it to control. Can you keep everyone under control? We can’t wait to find out.

Skald: Against the Black Priory

An image from Skald: The Black Priory, but it looks like an image that could have been pulled from an early 90s computer game, or earlier - from an Ultima, perhaps. It's heavily pixelated and 2D, showing the interior of a castle hall, maybe, or a pirate cavern. It's very colourful. — This looks great! Skald. | Image credit: High North Studios

Release date: Q2 2024
Platforms: PC

Another we’ve had our eye on for a while, this is a retro-style RPG with some absolutely superlative pixel art, set in a grim dark fantasy world. We might be reaching peak “grim dark fantasy world” quite soon, if we’ve not already, but there is always room for a special game to come along and blow away any sense of over-exposure. This could well be one.

Hauntii

Release date: Q2 2024
Platforms: PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5

There should be more games where you get to play as a ghost! In Hauntii you do, as you work through puzzles and light combat with the ability to control animals and the wider world around you. A flash of sandy yellow or neon turquoise against deep black, it looks like a game of remarkable atmosphere.

Naiad

Release date: Q2 2024
Platforms: PC, Mac, consoles

It’s hard to see Naiad in motion and not want to leap in. A game about wild swimming delivered from a top-down perspective and with a gorgeous pastel colour palette, this promises to be the perfect tonic for the frayed tempers of the mid-’20s. Oh, and there are ducks. Sold.

Hades 2

Release date: Early Access Q2 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Supergiant’s first ever sequel is probably quite a daunting task for the developers – the original is a genuine classic. The solution? Embrace witchcraft. That’s a pretty good solution TBH.

Baby Steps

A curvy masculine character lifts a leg and looks down at it, as if it's moving for the very first time. A character nearby looks on. — “How do these work again?” Baby Steps. | Image credit: Bennett Foddy, Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch

Release date: Summer 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5

The creators of QWOP and Ape Out come together for this game in which you encounter the terrifying wilderness of the outside world taking one step at a time. Physics and animation combine in this gloriously unsettling game.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail

Alisae in Dawntrail trailer — Juicy. Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail. | Image credit: Square Enix

Release date: Summer 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4

FF14 heads west with this expansion that offers a new mountain and forest region alongside new jobs, a new level cap, and all sorts of other bits and pieces. Lots to do and, by the looks of it, some lovely sunsets too.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD

A scared-looking Luigi shines a torch at the viewer. — What happened to all that side-eye sass, Lu?! Luigi’s Mansion 2. | Image credit: Nintendo

Release date: Summer 2024
Platforms: Switch

Luigi’s 3DS outing was always a little overlooked, so it’s nice to get a chance to revisit its haunted halls and ballrooms. The art style looks like it’s handled the platform transition pretty well, and we’re kind of excited to give this another spin.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Release date: Summer 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S/X

Lies of P turned out well last year, so can another Soulslike tickle our fancy this year? Ian was quite impressed by Flintlock when he played it a couple of years ago, before it slipped off the release schedule, but as ever, more development time cannot hurt. Will this mix of gods and guns still feel fresh in 2024? We shall see.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

A blue-coloured Space Marine walks towards a huge, towering - and crumbling - building ahead of them. — Ding dong! Space Marine 2. | Image credit: Saber Interactive

Release date: 9th September 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

Gah, get us this one right now. Take on the role of square-jawed future-fascists once more, and this time mow down thousands of Tyrannids, which look exactly like the Xenomorph but don’t say that in front of a lawyer. The combat looks punchy, and there is a bit where a swarm tries to run at you from across a bridge while you desperately hold them off, which immediately kicks any kind of horde-based shooter up a notch in our books.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

POV: You're a vampire up in the dark rafters of a building, looking down on a lone human standing in the light below. Prey. — Ah, lunch! Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. | Image credit: Paradox

Release date: Autumn 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Will it, won’t it? We’ve been waiting for Bloodlines 2 for years now, and it seemed to get so close to release before disappearing again in development hell. Now, though, the project has resurfaced in development at The Chinese Room, and appears to be stable and on course for a release this year. How much has changed since we last saw it? We can’t wait to find out.

Football Manager 2025

Official FM24 screenshot of the in-match engine showing a team scoring a goal in front of a blue-and-white coloured crowd. — This is FM24, because FM25 hasn’t been announced yet. But expect it like clockwork later this year. | Image credit: Sega.

Release date: Late 2024
Platforms: PC, with console and handheld versions expected

Far from just another year for the venerable management series, FM25 has been bigged up by Sports Interactive studio head Miles Jacobson as something of a revolution for the series, as they move to a new engine and rework the entire UI. It’s about as big a deal as you can get in the sports sim world, and with FM24 already a brilliant entry we’re very excited. (Well mostly it’s just Chris, but he’s excited enough for everyone).

The Plucky Squire

An open picture book resting on a desk, the visible two-page illustration showing a figure hunting strange creatures with their bow. — A real… page turner? The Plucky Squire. | Image credit: All Possible Futures/Devolver Digital

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series S/X

A game that gets at the purest magic of the medium, The Plucky Squire is an action-adventure in which you step from the pages of a book and carve a heroic path through the domestic world around you. 2D and 3D elements blend ingeniously and it all looks beautiful too. This could be a proper smash.

Unrailed 2: Back on Track

Looking down on a bright, colourful, blocky world where we're trying very hard to keep our little train on its track. But the level is littered with obstacles, including but not limited to a gigantic spider in the swamp nearby. — Choo choose your co-op partners wisely! Unrailed 2: Back on Track. | Image credit: Indoor Astronaut

Release date: Early Access 2024
Platforms: PC

Chunky and colourful, Unrailed 2 promises to be absolute carnage, as you and a bunch of friends build out a train track while an engine is already chugging along the line. Prepare to fall out with people and swear a lot.

Foolish Mortals

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

A hand-drawn adventure game in the classic style, Foolish Mortals takes players to the coast of Louisiana in the 1930s for a spooky treasure hunt. And that all sounds kind of great, really.

The Mermaid’s Tongue

The bright green-haired character Sally tells us they can keep staring at the environment they're standing in front of in the screenshot, but they're not going to find anything. We see an illustrated cut-out of Sally and a text box next to them. — Sally, with a very Hey Arnold haircut there. The Mermaid’s Tongue. | Image credit: SFB Games

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One. Demo available on Steam now

Another adventure game, and one that sees the return of Detective Grimoire. Any follow-up to Tangle Tower would be welcome, but one that sees you investigating the murder of the captain of the world’s strangest submarine? Hold me.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

We see the shadowed back of Senua as she faces off against a huge, bald, humanoid of nightmares before her. — Eek! Hellblade 2. | Image credit: Ninja Theory

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

It’s off to Iceland for the next part of Senua’s adventures in what looks to be a graphically stunning new Ninja Theory game.

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

One of the most intriguing and ingenious games of recent years gets a sequel here – and a sequel that heads to the 1970s, a perfect era for more tales of improbable crime and disgusting murder. Explore the scene, investigate, and piece together your own idea of what happened. This should be fantastic.

Kind Words 2

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Mac

Kind Words was a game about writing nice, short messages to people anonymously online, and it was all wrapped up in a ‘low-fi game to chill to’ aesthetic. It was brilliant. And now, there’s a sequel. And whereas in Kind Words 1, you were confined to a bedroom, in the sequel, there’s a world outside to explore. Games don’t get more wholesome than this.

Avowed

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series S/X (Game Pass)

We still haven’t really seen what Obsidian can do with Microsoft as its owner – what those extra resources and stability have enabled. We’ve seen Grounded and Pentiment, but both were small-team projects. Avowed is a big-team project. It’s a first-person fantasy RPG that looks a bit like an Elder Scrolls game, at a glance, and it’ll be fascinating to see what Obsidian can bring.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story

A screenshot from the history game of Jeff Minter's Llamasoft work. It shows a photo of a young Jeff next to a sliding timeline. He's got shades on, his trademark long hair, and he looks cool. — What a legend. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. | Image credit: Digital Eclipse

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

Digital Eclipse is doing something special with its playable histories series – you only need to look at the Making of Karateka to see that. Whose work could it feature next after the legendary Jordan Mechner (and father)? None other than Llamasoft’s Jeff Minter, creator of Tempest, Attack of the Mutant Space Camels, last year’s Akka Arrh and so many more.

Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles

Bulwark - supply lines visible over a city — Check those supply lines. Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles.

Release date: already in Early Access; full release in 2024
Platforms: PC, with PlayStation and Xbox versions scheduled for 2024

The Falconeer still burns bright in our memory. It was a one-person project – an aerial combat game about riding around on giant falcons across a stormy archipelago. And at the core of its appeal was the distinct setting – the moodiness of it, the sorrow of it. For this follow-up, creator Tomas Sala is reusing the setting, but the gameplay has completely changed. Now, it’s a freeform city-builder with an emphasis on expression. Build what you want out there and shape it as you will, and then see what happens. It’s out in Early Access already but the full release will happen this year – see our interview with Sala for some utter gems.

Thank Goodness You’re Here

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Switch

Thank Goodness You’re Here is more Northern than a flat cap and a cuppa, wrote Ed when the game was announced last summer. It’s a game drawn in a striking 90s Beano comic way, that has you arrive in a Northern English town as a travelling salesman, taking on increasingly odd jobs. One of the quirkier releases of the year.

Little Nightmares 3

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One

This will be the first game in the series not developed by creator Tarsier; development has instead been handed to Dark Pictures team Supermassive. Will it make much of a difference? We’ll have to wait and see.

Star Wars Outlaws

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Set within the original trilogy’s timespan, this is an open-world adventure across a galaxy far, far away. More importantly, it chooses perhaps the richest lens to view that galaxy: you’re a scoundrel!

Thrasher

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, “consoles” and VR

A spiritual follow-up to the glorious Thumper, from the same composer and director, Thrasher looks like a [head-]banger. We’re big into games that make you sit back and do the Neo-voice “woah” here, although for some of us that might be replaced with an expletive of choice. If the blurb includes the phrase “mind-melting cosmic racer” in it, you can always count us in.

Arco

Two tiny pixelated camel riders make their way across a sun bleached desert that's flanked by huge, towering bones. — The eye-catching Arco. | Image credit: Franek, Max Cahill, Bibiki, Antonio Uribe

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC

Made by just four people, including a wonderful pixel artist known as Franek who we follow for nice pretty creations on X/Twitter, Arco is an action RPG with, yes, glorious pixel art, but also a branching story, a seemingly South American inspired location and rebel-bandit protagonist (complete with poncho and llama), and an intriguing “simultaneous turn-based” combat system. It looks ace.

33 Immortals

A top down-ish image of dozens of players with swords on their back running into a structure. They are chased by fire. There's a sandy, desert aesthetic to the whole image. — One, two, three, four… I give up; there’s probably 33. Immortals, that is. | Image credit: Thunder Lotus

Release date: 2024 (Early Access)
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S (Game Pass)

33 Immortals almost stole the show at Xbox’s big summer showcase last year. A “lean” distillation of the MMO raid experience, it’s about taking on bosses in 33-player co-op, which is a fantastic idea in theory that we’re deeply interested in trying in practice.

Dungeons of Hinterberg

A colourful image showing a red-haired character with a backpack on and holding a sword, while next to them, a cable car moves away from a pylon supporting the wire. Fantasy meets the real world? It's a strange juxtaposition. — Ah, fantasy. And a cable car? Dungeons of Hinterberg. | Image credit: Microbird Games

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

Oh, swoon. A deeply – and we use this word sparingly – charming proposition, Dungeons of Hinterberg has you pootling about an Austrian alpine village part of the time, before swanning off to a nearby dungeon for a bit of light combat and puzzle solving for the rest. Gameplay switches styles quite drastically from one dungeon to the next – you might be snowboarding through one, or playing a top-down game in another – but the magic here is all in the character, which is quirky and jovial and just desperately European.

Horses

A grainy, black and white image of what appears to be a wooden church interior, where rows of small pews are sat on by people wearing... horse heads. — Just an every day scene… Horses. | Image credit: Andrea Lucco Borlera

Release date: 2024
Platforms: TBC

Horses is a deeply surreal-looking black-and-white horror from solo developer Andrea Lucco Borlera. It looks brilliant and bizarre, and crucially it’s being published by Santa Ragione, the Italian boutique publisher of the exceptional Milky Way Prince – The Vampire Star, Mediterranea Inferno, and Saturnalia. If you like art house cinema and strongly considered buying yourself an Aeropress in the Boxing Day sales, this one’s for you.

Summerhouse

A pixel art postcard of a picture, showing a small, colourful house café with tall trees side, with a lake out front and towering mountains in the back. You can practically breathe the clean mountain air from here. — You can practically breathe the clean air from here! Summerhouse. | Image credit: Friedemann.

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC

A small-scale building game about assembling peaceful, enchanting little houses, Summerhouse looks like 2024’s premier chillout game. It’s from Friedmann, a solo developer who’s worked on some gems, including Islanders and Pizza Possum. Very much in pole position for Nicest Vibe award at the end of the year.

Despelote

The first person perspective of a child holding a spoon in some kind of bowl or dish with small disc-shaped things in. A dog sits nearby watching. The characters are plane white line drawings, almost, while the area around is a heavily filtered photograph, rendered in purple and orange. — I wonder what they’re eating. That dog wonders too. Despelote. | Image credit: Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5

Another from a tiny crew of independent developers, Despelote is a narrative adventure about childhood, via playing football in the streets of Ecuador. The perfect accompaniment to your retro kit collection and subscription to Mundial, it looks like a gem of a coming-of-age story. Published by the people at Panic (Firewatch, Untitled Goose Game, Nour), who know their stuff.

Neva

A side-on shot of a small caped character and a wolf facing each other in the clearing of a forest. It's a heavily illustrative style, with shards of sunlight slicing through the middle of the image. — Gorgeous. Neva. | Image credit: Nomada Studio

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch

From the team behind Gris, Neva is another artful game about Big Themes, following a protagonist and her wolf companion through a dying world. The artwork is glorious as you’d expect – prepare for the full breadth of the rainbow.

Paper Trail

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, mobile all TBC)

Nominated for a bundle of awards, Paper Trail’s a narrative puzzler that has you navigating the world by tearing and folding it over itself, revealing a quite miraculous spin on perspective. It seems clever, elegant, richly colourful and wonderfully simple all at once.

1000X Resist

A first-person view of a futuristic and brightly cel-shaded bar. The all-in-one suited and masked bartender is asking what drink they can get us. — “Dark n’ sinful, please.” 1000X Resist. | Image credit: Sunset Visitor

Release date: 2024
Platforms: PC

A far-future sci-fi about a group of androids (replicants? Clones?) living alongside the last surviving human, called the All Mother. Likely to fall just to one side of the fine line between tropey and inspired, 1000X Resist is channelling a bit of Blade Runner 2049 in its tale of deception and post-disaster mystery, and we’re certainly curious. Helps that it comes from Citizen Sleeper publisher Fellow Traveller, too.

Games which probably won’t come out in 2024 but you never know

What else? On the blockbuster front, the bigguns are Marvel’s Wolverine and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, the latter of which we’ll definitely hear more about this summer, and the former probably the same. But it’d be a minor surprise if they landed this year. An even bigger surprise would be The Sims 5, which sounds like it’s still a little way off.

Screenshot from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf teaser showing the port city of Treviso sits bathed in evening light. — Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, AKA DAD. | Image credit: BioWare

Metroid Prime 4, we’d purely speculate, would make a prime candidate for the Switch 2 we confirmed to be demoing behind closed doors at Gamescom last summer, but there’s no news on any date for it yet – the last we heard was a minor tease of Prime 4 in early 2022.

Dreamsettler screenshot showing a beige desktop background and series of overlapping, retro PC windows with bright clashing colours. — Dreamsettler, which does not look that settling if we’re behind honest. | Image credit: No More Robots.

On the indie front, there are a few more we have our eyes on. The Seagull is an intriguing, noiry-looking narrative marked as “coming soon”, as is Dreamsettler, which goes hard on the late 90s PC aesthetic – understandably so, as it’s the followup from the developers of Hypnospace Outlaw.

Citizen Sleeper 2 is still TBC, but we adored the first here at Eurogamer and have fingers crossed for this sequel not being too far away. And lastly, Nirvana Noir: a successor to Genesis Noir that looks to be equally cosmic, but now in beautiful technicolour.