ShogunRok

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote to us for this feature.

Like the article says, we received way more submissions than we thought we would, so we had to be very selective with what's included here.

Apologies if your entry didn't make the cut; we read each and every 'letter' that was sent, and it was honestly really cool seeing how passionate people got about their favourite games of the past year.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to write something.

In 2025, we want to make reader letters a monthly feature, so keep an eye out!

@themightyant Thanks for letting us know, really nice to hear Colin still likes the site!

Just for the record though (we do have to keep pointing this out), Hookshot is our parent company, but it wasn't bought up by IGN. Hookshot and all of its sites (Push Square, Nintendo Life, Pure Xbox, Time Extension) are still independent.

@Korgon It's really interesting that NISA isn't involved. Makes you think that GungHo either gave Falcom the best deal, or NISA is already at max capacity launching Daybreak 2 and (most likely) Kai next year.

Still, exciting times to be a Trails fan!

Sorry about that everyone, we've had to replace the poll because it was missing some obvious games. That's out fault for not keeping the database updated properly!

We've republished the article and the poll, but unfortunately that means we'll have to start over. Apologies if you've already voted and you're only just now seeing this message.

The good news is we only had around one hour's worth of votes, so I'm sure we'll get back to that number again soon.

Thanks to everyone who does vote (potentially for the second time!).

The bigger issue here is that people take this misinformation and run with it. Not because they believe it, but because it fuels their agenda against the game.

The rate at which this happens is mind-blowing these days. YouTube, for example, is absolutely riddled with copy-paste channels that do nothing but spurt hate towards certain things — they're purely there to farm clicks from the "culture war".

We live in dangerously stupid times!

@Ajfennell77 Nah, Until Then is a visual novel that got really good reviews (including our own!).

Hey everyone, just a few quick notes:

• If your favourite game from 2024 isn't on the list, we can only apologise! 50 games is a necessary cap to ensure that the voting system remains balanced.
• Only standalone games make the cut. Expansions, like Shadow of the Erdtree (looking at you, Geoff!) aren't included (but they can still be featured in our own best DLC award).
• The minimum number of games you can choose in the poll is three. In previous years, some users complained that they hadn't actually played three games and so couldn't vote, but unfortunately, we can't let people vote for just one or two games, as doing so could unbalance the voting process overall.

If anyone's got any questions about our whole Game of the Year process, let me know and I can try to answer them.

Thanks to everyone who votes! Can't wait to share the results over the holidays.

We tried to keep this about new game reveals, rather than updates or fresh trailers for existing titles.

Not a bad list to choose from!

I was saying to Sammy, they should just make a Like a Dragon / Yakuza fighting game.

This new Virtua Fighter is 100% going to be that. Half the cast will be Kiryu and his mates.

Some incredible announcements. Properly hype-inducing announcements.

But the show is just far too long. The padding in the latter half was insane.

I'm losing my mind.

@Nepp67 @Magatsuhi The duality of man.

This might have actually stolen the show, somehow.

I wasn't sold on the idea of Ciri being the main character at all, but this trailer's changed my mind. An older, clearly much more jaded Ciri is just what we needed. Following in her adoptive dad's footsteps.

@Rambo-kind This isn't a competition — X is just abysmal. I'm not even on Bluesky!

I think it'll be Rebirth, but I hope it's Balatro just so I can watch the world burn.

@AinsleyE @Jaz007 The FMV stuff will be a development thing. Much easier (and probably cheaper) to just hire out a studio for a few days and film the women than it is to scan them, animate them, etc. Especially when RGG are on an annual release schedule (and YiH is a smaller game anyway).

But yeah, it does feel weirdly removed from the rest of the experience because it's FMV.

@torquex @wildcat_kickz It sounds like this update (and maybe future updates, if there are any) was actually outsourced to a third-party developer in France. I forget the name, but it was mentioned on the stream.

So when CDPR said no one's working on 2077, they were telling the truth.

I hope Push Square readers vote better than this in our GOTY poll...

@JonnyAces Yes, I believe so!

This review's a bit late because we somehow got the embargo mixed up!

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

@DennisReynolds @Loamy Dev has confirmed this isn't a Pro update, sadly.

CDPR actively trying to ruin my Christmas gaming plans. Crazy support.

@RagnarLothbrok Yes, he's out and enjoying the lovely Scottish weather again.

I promise we didn't just lock Aaron in a small room and force him to play hundreds of PS5 games in order to make this ridiculously big list.

@Zeke68 And they're not even watching the game, they're watching people try to log in.

@UltimateOtaku91 You are forgiven.

@LordOfTurnips Ah, it's because it only has 27 ratings right now. Games need 35 to make this list (purely to try and balance what actually makes the cut).

We'll still have to fix up the game page though, so thanks for saying something!

@LordOfTurnips Thanks for pointing this out, we'll take a look!

Just goes to show how many great games the PS1 had. So many of these titles are iconic not just for PlayStation, but for gaming as a whole.

Hey everyone, we'd like to do more of these specific franchise / game quizzes in the future, so feel free to make suggestions on what you'd like to see.

They're a lot of fun to make and hopefully they're fun answer.

@Rich33 All good, thanks for taking part!

Adding a new subclass for every existing class is absolutely insane. Larian is GOATed.

@Cloud39472

@L_Bosch Oi, guv!

@Yousef- Yeah that's fine, as long as you're picking just one of them as your GOTY!

@Totheteeth Yep, as long as it released in 2024 for PS5, it counts — even if it was on other platforms before.

@carlos82 Haha, I can try. We'll make edits for typos and grammar, as long as they're obvious mistakes.

If anyone's got any questions about this whole thing, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

@SheerDisappointment Basically yes, it was an online action RPG with MMO elements. It was effectively competing with the likes of Genshin.

But all of these live service games are ultimately competing for one thing: your time. Publishers are finally realising how difficult that is.

@0niguy @wildcat_kickz @Max_the_German Yeah I'm 100% thinking of Battlefield V — got them mixed up!

Nightmare timeline where meaningful PS5 Pro patches are exclusive to ***** games.

@charbtronic Rumour is that it'll be announced relatively soon. By all accounts the project is real — just depends on what it actually is in terms of scope.

@ibis_87 The 'Dracky Quest' difficulty makes the game easier overall but it's still not what I'd call easy. You'll still need to grind for exp and gold to keep your party on par — it's just a little more forgiving in terms of damage (I think).

Generally speaking, DQ3 can be a surprisingly difficult game at times, and the remake is no different. Dracky Quest helps somewhat, but again, it doesn't make the game a cakewalk.

@PorkChopExpress Sorry for the late reply, I was on holiday last week!

I'd say it'll take most players around 40 hours to beat this, maybe a bit longer (50ish) if you want to see absolutely everything and try out all the party member classes, etc.

The Trophies are pretty straightforward for the most part, but some can be a serious grind, like recruiting every monster in the game.

@themightyant Sorry for the late reply, I was on holiday last week!

You can speed up battles which is a huge plus, but there are no other ways to tweak the game beyond the overall difficulty settings.

But even with the battle speed set to super fast, the encounter rate still feels ridiculous at times.

@AhmadSumadi I thought the same about Mages in this game, but then I tried the orb and dagger weapon combo they get alongside their (in my opinion, quite boring) staff, and it changed my mind. Really fun if you spec into it!

(But yes, it does seem quite overpowered.)

@Nepp67 Yep, still there unfortunately.

@Cloud39472 I thought I was going to hate Solas in this game (purely because of what he did at the end of Inquisition) but I thought BioWare did a fantastic job of making him seem quite complex in his motivations and personality.

You also get a lot of meaningful dialogue options with him, which I think helps!

@ChimpMasta No I agree on this, Americanised dialogue often pulls me out of fantasy settings as well. I'm not against having American actors in medieval fantasy games, but there's a fine line between say, Geralt in The Witcher and some of the characters in Dragon Age.

You're right though, it's mostly about the tone and direction of the actors. And then it's hard to escape that tone if the dialogue is also written from an Americanised perspective, which I think is often the issue in The Veilguard.

But I will say, people are quick to forget that it's been a decade since Inquisition. While I don't think The Veilguard is quite as different in tone and atmosphere compared to past games as some people think, it's still a product of a different time and a mostly different team.

I think these kinds of tonal shifts were inevitable in places, although I understand why some people are disappointed.

And from my perspective, the game's writing does get better as the story goes on, and the stakes are raised. Criticisms still apply for some of it — especially when companion quests are involved — but particularly in the main story, it feels a lot like older Dragon Age.