Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Launch issues, Career Mode bugs, performance problems (more so on PC than console) – even with all that in mind, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a worthwhile new addition to the Xbox library. The sheer range of new aircraft combined with new activities in Career Mode, World Photographer – including walking outside your plane in multiple rich biomes – and additional aircraft systems offer a rich experience. And when it works, there’s nothing quite like soaring the skies and peering down all creation.

Arizona Sunshine Remake

The original Arizona Sunshine from 2016 caused a bit of a stir regarding some of its content being locked behind Intel Core i7 CPUs. Now in 2024, you can play all of that content, including two large DLCs and numerous updates with a ground-up remake to match Arizona Sunshine 2’s visuals. You’re mostly shooting zombies with your two VR hands throughout the linear narrated campaign, but there’s also a lot of quirky environmental interactions that make this a classic VR experience; and best of all, it has three-player co-op to triple the shenanigans. If you own a VR set, Arizona Sunshine Remake is a clear no-brainer.

Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2

Space Marine 2’s multiplayer offerings are tremendous fun, but it’s the solo campaign where the core meat and potatoes of the game are found. The story kicks off where Space Marine 1 left off, with Captain Titus returning to command his squad against the Tyranid swarms after a mortal wound. With a runtime around 10 hours long, Space Marine 2’s campaign is a riotous time filled with spectacular vistas and visceral combat. This is a hack and slash in a lot of ways, but Space Marine 2 emphasizes precise countering more than its predecessor, adding a bit of extra skill to the mix. Grabbing a partner to run through the separate co-op missions is a treat as well, but the AI companions aren’t bad either with their consistent healing and tanky defense. Space Marine 2 feels like a blast from the past with its fast-paced campaign density.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Remaking a horror masterpiece like Silent Hill 2 is no easy feat, yet Bloober somehow pulled it off with great success. A key ingredient in that success is the expanded environments. The atmospheric hallways and foggy outdoor areas greatly encourage exploration, leading the player to a host of new items and collectables that can be viewed from any angle. Helping you navigate the expanded areas is the new over-the-shoulder camera perspective, which gives further context to environments. The original Silent Hill 2 clocked in at around 12 or so hours, but the remake can easily take double that time from all the added exploration. Still, the remake maintains the dense pacing of the original in spite of this, making it one of the more impressive and scary linear games on this list.

Black Myth Wukong

Black Myth Wukong takes a rather unorthodox approach to level design, seesawing back and forth between corridor-like linearity to wide open environments. Most puzzling of all, there’s no map or navigation tools to assist your exploration in the game. Despite this, we couldn’t help but marvel at the variety of biomes and beauty of environments within the Journey To the West-inspired tale. But it isn’t just some of the environments that proceed linearly, your weapons and armor automatically upgrade as you progress too. Black Myth Wukong is a masterclass in focus; it doesn’t meander and bloat the player’s time with frivolous stuff, instead honing in on what makes it great.

Stellar Blade

If you’re familiar with the way Nier Automata handles level design, you’ll feel at home within Stellar Blade. One area that Stellar Blade expands upon its level design is the engaging collectibles scattered across its environments. You have everything from soda cans to posters and boxes of loot to collect, rewarding you with new costumes for Eve and her companions to wear. The wide-linear nature of the environments hits a sweat spot that always manages to make you feel like you’re progressing forward while giving satisfying room for exploration as you do so. Parts of the story have you strictly going from A to B with collectibles nestled within secret routes off the beaten path, while others are open zones meant for questing and exploration. Stellar Blade excels in the way it mixes urgency and exploration with its wide-linear level design.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

Hellblade 2 takes quite a different approach to linear level design. Due to the zoomed-in focus on very specific locations, Ninja Theory managed to go all-out decorating each hand-crafted environment and presenting it all with an unmatched cinematic flair. It’s no exaggeration to say that Hellblade 2 is among the most graphically impressive games to date. This combination of chiseled graphical fidelity with cinematic flair help cement Hellblade 2’s Norse-inspired locations into the player’s memory. It may be a straightforward game in all aspects of its gameplay, but Hellblade 2’s psychologically rich narrative and impressive visual presentation punctuate its linear design with a bold exclamation point.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Despite introducing a sailing ship into the Mario & Luigi series, Brothership still follows a more or less traditional critical path. The brothers’ overarching goal this time around is lighting the four Great Lighthouses throughout Concordia’s oceans. The developers made sure each of the four Great Lighthouse dungeons were top-tier, earning the top spot on my list of Mario RPG dungeons. When they’re not puzzling their way through the Great Lighthouse dungeons, Mario & Luigi are busy linking together the distinctly themed islands with the ship. Brothership threads its themes of connections brilliantly through the narrative and humorous writing, forming a cohesive story that impresses despite its basic appearance.

The Plucky Squire

The Plucky Squire mashes together a bunch of different genres onto the framework of a top-down adventure game. A majority of your time is spent swinging around a sword defeating enemies, but the sheer amount of odd little minigames ranging from Punch-Out sequences, to Duck Hunt shootouts, and even some turn-based RPG fun, is chaotically enduring. And then there’s the puzzles that ask you to rearrange sentences for new props to appear inside the picture book you inhabit. And yes, you even get to pop out of the book and into ‘the real world’ several times. The pop-up book aesthetic puts a bow on the whole package, making The Plucky Squire one of the most enduring linear games of the year.

Neva

Like the studio’s previous game Gris, Neva does more than just offer up a compelling platforming game; it’s an emotional audio/visual art piece. The bond between Alba and her wolf pup Neva grows as the seasons change throughout the adventure, manifested in turn by more advanced platforming challenges. Neva differentiates itself from Gris with its emphasis on combo-based combat and precision platforming sequences, providing a punchy and satisfying linear adventure full of heart.

Akimbot

If you’re looking for an old-school action/adventure game that’s as straightforward as it is fun, look no further than Akimbot. Like its Ratchet and Clank inspiration, you have a range of gun types to unload on enemies with through a linear story. The pacing of the action is non-stop, supplying a constant stream of action-platforming fun. And the best thing is its gameplay doesn’t overstay its welcome thanks to a variety of activities and sequences breaking up the usual run-and-gunning (such as the bullet hell sections). Akimbot is one of the those games that’s effortless to just drop in and play without too much thought or prep-work, and I still often get the urge to start up another playthrough many months after completing it.

Lego Horizon Adventures

Despite its open world source material, the Lego-fied version of Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the most linear and straightforward Lego games to date. You play through the basic storyline of Horizon Zero Dawn through linear mission-based levels, returning to the Mother’s Heart hub area in between your excursions. There’s not a ton of exploration in this game except for some smaller open areas and branching paths in the levels, but the hub does allow for some satisfying customization and personalization. Whether you’re a Horizon fan or a Lego connoisseur, you owe it to yourself to play this unique take on the PlayStation IP solo or with two other friends.

Princess Peach Showtime

If you’re looking for a fun mish-mash of different gameplay ideas and themes presented in true Nintendo fashion, Princess Peach Showtime will satisfy. Each stage has a unique theme that completely alters the gameplay and aesthetics, as well as, of course, Peach’s outfit. From lassoing up bandits on a horse to swordfighting through hack and slash dungeons, the creative levels give you reasons to come back and replay them. Like previous Good Feel games, stages are absolutely filled with collectables and secrets, providing solid replay value.

Astro Bot

Unlike Princess Peach or Akimbot, Astro Bot takes a more open approach to some of its levels, taking a cue from something like Super Mario Galaxy. Still, Astro Bot’s levels comprise mostly linear challenges, and oh how fun they are. 3D platforming never felt better than with Astro Bot’s high tech Dual Sense functionality – it goes beyond a mere gimmick, being a primary function of gameplay. Every action in the game is accompanied by a signature rumble from the controller. Each stage is tailored specifically to the PS5 and its controller, providing a unique kind of console experience. Likewise, stages take full advantage of Astro’s abilities in creative and imaginative ways, proving that linearity can be an enormous strength in platforming games.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak

I know, I know, an ongoing JPRG series with a dozen connected games is a hard sell for most folks. But you owe it to yourself to give Trails Through Daybreak the light of day. For one, it forms the beginning of a new arc with a fresh cast of characters set in a different province from previous games. It’s also just a phenomenal turn-based RPG through and through. If you enjoy dialogue-heavy RPG stories with a linear structure that lets you explore its towns at your own pace, Trails Through Daybreak may be the surprise hit that gets you invested into the wider series.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Not only is this the first Indy game in 15 years, it’s also a return for MachineGames after their run of successful Wolfenstein reboot titles. As previews have observed, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features a lot of stealth. Its core gameplay revolves less around – well, revolvers – than you’d come to expect, supplying an experience more in line with the Thief series. You’re often hiding  behind baddies to knock them out before finding that ever elusive key to the locked door down the hallway. What we’ve seen of the trailers has us reassured that MachineGames knows what makes Indiana Jones stories so fun charming. Hopefully, the stealth mechanics and story manage to reach the highs that the IP has been lacking in recent years when Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches December 9^th.

ANIMAL WELL 

The golden age of Metroidvanias continues to deliver modern classics, and Animal Well has surely joined that list. With no combat whatsoever and a striking pixel art aesthetic, it allows itself to stand out in a crowded genre, while its finely crafted and dense world, which remains a constant joy to explore from start to finish, is also a highlight. For fans of Metroidvanias, this one is unmissable.

While next year looks even more jam-packed with incredible adventures, what are some of the best role-playing games from 2024 that deserve your attention? Join us as we sift through the dozens of choices and present the 20 best RPGs of the year that must be experienced.

Path of Exile 2

For all the complaints against its rewards, end-game, map layouts, etc., Path of Exile 2 is still an incredible action RPG, even in early access. Each class and their Ascendancies presented multiple new options; the Skills are impressive while combat feels visceral; and the bosses present some of the best encounters in the genre. The fact that such a sizable end-game is available right now, complete with pinnacle bosses, is also incredible. Yes, there are plenty of things to improve, but Path of Exile 2 is proving just as addictive as its predecessor and will receive double the amount of content before early access ends.

1. Path of Exile 2

If there’s one game on this list that could’ve fooled us into thinking it was already a complete package, it’s Path of Exile 2. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Path of Exile 2 stands as the best action RPGs available right now, and it’s still early days with the full launch a year away. Between the intricate build customization, varied macabre environments, and story oozing with rich lore, we’re looking forward to just how much more jam-packed with content Path of Exile 2 will get with its full launch sometime in the coming year.

2. Hades 2

The first sequel from the beloved indie dev, Supergiant, is already amazing and it’s still only in early access. Hades 2 takes the brilliant roguelike structure of the first game and adds a whole lot of magic (literally) and added polish to the mix. The sequel expands upon the well-written Greek pantheon featured in the prequel, introducing a new protagonist in Melinoe, the sister of Hades 1’s hero. Hades 2 aims to outdo Hades in every respect, which is already evident by the sheer number of new locations and the plethora of content present in its early access state.

3. Wild Woods

This four-player co-op indie game tasks players to defend a wagon going through some dangerous woods. Sounds rather simple, right? Well, it shares some very creative elements from Kunitsu-Gami, another game that has you gathering resources during daytime to prepare for night combat. The four-player cooperation elements serve as a good foundation for added maps and challenges leading up to its full release. Though, since Wild Woods just became available for early access on December 9^th, odds are that it has a ways to go until its complete launch.

4. Palworld

With well over eight million units sold and record-breaking Steam player counts, Pocket Pair’s Palworld is doing well for itself despite the looming Nintendo lawsuit. Palworld drew in a substantial number of players disillusioned by Pokemon’s latest offerings. The base building and gun-toting Pal battles are great fun, and with the Feybreak update coming December 23^rd, players have a lot more content to look forward to.

5. Enshrouded

Enshrouded may be yet another survival crafting game, but it executes each of its components well above most of the competition. The combat is rather satisfying with its action RPG mechanics and parry-laden fights. If you’re struggling to make ends meet in this hostile open world, there are 15 other players who can help (or hinder) you in your journey. Enshrouded is notable for meeting a majority of its roadmap goals as it inches ever closer to its full 2025 release.

6. Manor Lords

What really sets Manor Lords apart from other city builder strategy games is its unwavering attention to medieval historical accuracy. There’s a laudable amount of detail regarding town expansion and resource management with historical systems like burgage plot structuring all in play. These intricate town management systems raise the stakes of the real-time strategy battles tenfold, adding a level of immersion and urgency to the genre. We’re looking forward to seeing how this one-man passion project turns out with its official launch.

7. Astrometica

This survival crafting game just released in early access on December 10^th and I’m already invested in what it offers. Unlike other endless space exploration games (like Starfield), the variety of ships within Astrometica are actually used to explore various anomalies and secrets. There’s even asteroid belts to navigate your ship through. You’ll need to settle down in a base to survive the cold hostility of space, though, and Astrometica delivers with its compelling tech tree and outpost crafting.

8. The Rogue Prince of Persia

Made by the studio that put out the acclaimed Dead Cells DLCs, this roguelite Prince of Persia title is in a quite the polished state half a year after its early access debut. As the title suggests, The Rogue Prince of Persia features procedurally generated levels filled with the kind of acrobatic platforming and action that the genre has been known for. Players who enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown or classic 2D platforming titles will find a lot to love with The Rogue Prince of Persia.

9. Rogue Command

Rogue Command is another roguelike game on this list, yet in the form of a classic RTS title. I don’t know if I’ve seen a classic RTS in this roguelike format before. It’s an intriguing gameplay conceit to have entirely different builds and units with every run, but Rogue Command does a good job keeping runs approachable and fun thanks to convenience features like a 10% time slow-down. Despite its early access status, there’s quite a lot of content here already, including 100s of units and over 20 map types.

10. Finnish Cottage Simulator

Consider me surprised to see Finnish Cottage Sim achieving an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam with thousands of reviews as of its November 15^th early access launch. The charming graphics and quant atmosphere help it stand out among the more budget-minded ‘simulator’ games. But it’s really the variety of quests and dynamic 6-player multiplayer that have hooked players into this fun and relaxing take on cottage living.

11. Dunjungle

If you like The Rogue Prince of Persia, Dunjungle is another early access title worth checking out. This fast-paced action platformer roguelite distinguishes itself with customizable equipment and classes to exploit enemy weaknesses with. The gameplay loop is more frenetic and punishing than something like The Rogue Prince of Persia with its lack of checkpoints, but thankfully there’s plenty of equipment and progress that stays with you between runs. Dunjungle is one of the most instantly gratifying early access games on the list thanks to its poppy drop-in, drop-out gameplay loop.

12. Cataclismo

Strategy players with a love for Legos need to try out Cataclismo. The game’s combination of real time strategy battles with brick-built base building forms a rather unique experience. Structures are effortless to construct thanks to the clear piece-by-piece process of building them. Seriously, if you like stacking bricks together, Cataclismo satisfies with a bevy of architectural pieces to get creative with and RTS combat to test your structures against.

13. Aska

Aska isn’t just another survival game; besides careful resource management and fights against wildlife and scavengers, the game asks you to manage your own tribe. This management wrinkle really adds a lot to the game. Take the unique way you add villagers to your village; you essentially craft villagers into existence out of resources, how cool is that? This fresh perspective on the survival genre further personalizes the village management aspect of the game, making survival that much more interesting and engaging.

14. New Arc Line

This early access game is for the classic role-playing fans. New Arc Line is set in a dystopian magi-tech setting where you begin as a penny-less immigrant aboard a steam ship to ‘the new world’. Between the range of NPC companions that you can recruit and build relationships with and the blend of mechanical and magic-based combat styles, New Arc Line has been an early access favorite for those who love choice-heavy RPGs.

15. ATLYSS

ATLYSS is one of those comfy and casual online RPGs that hits the sweet spot for those pining for some old-school nostalgia. The open world is rewarding to explore and quest through and the colorful PS2-stylized graphics really make it stand out. Players will have no trouble finding others to adventure with, considering the high concurrent player counts, though ATLYSS is unique in that none of the content is locked to multiplayer and can be experienced solo.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Developer KT Racing’s most ambitious title to date has landed Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown a place on this rundown despite an onslaught of issues resulting predominantly from it’s always-online requirement. First, the good: Solar Crown’s Hong Kong open world is consistently complex and interesting, and the car feel – whilst not perfect – is a step up from Test Drive Unlimited 2. The bad however outweighs the good: time wasting bugs, server issues even when racing solely against AI, and inconsistent, non-adjustable difficulty settings makes Solar Crown a racer steeped in promise but with much to fix.

The First Descendant

Kicking things off with free to play third-person looter shooter The First Descendant, this co-operative RPG tasks teams of up to four with saving humanity from a string of hostile invaders. It harbours everything you could ever want in a modern-day shooter: flashy gunplay, intricate visuals, and a varied cast of colourful characters each with unique skills and capabilities. However, there are problems in its frustratingly slow progression, non-existent story, and atrocious balancing. Sort these issues out and The First Descendant could achieve some longevity in what is becoming an increasingly challenging domain.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHORNOBYL

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 made grand promises about its size and scope leading up to launch, and it makes good on those promises without a shadow of doubt. Even seeing the main story alone to completion requires a hefty time investment, but if you’re trying to experience every single thing the game has to offer, you’re easily going to clock in at least a hundred hours, if not more.

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is exactly the sort of game for you if you like pouring endless hours into a single game. Like its 2020 predecessor, it lures you in with the promise of a large, authentically recreated digital twin of our planet and flight simulation mechanics, while this time, there’s an even greater amount of content and attention to detail in general to be impressed with. Chances are, if the game gets its hooks in you, you’re going to keep going back to it for some time to come.

LIKE A DRAGON: INFINITE WEALTH

A long Like a Dragon game? Who’d have thunk, eh? Of course, almost dauntingly long runtimes have been a key characteristic of Yakuza games for a long time now, but even by the series’ standards, Infinite Wealth is particularly beefy. Even the quickest of playthrough of this colossal RPG can easily take between 50-60 hours, but players who want to experience everything in the game are easily looking at over a hundred hours.

FINAL FANTASY 7 REBIRTH

“Epic” doesn’t begin to describe the scope of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Square Enix truly went all out with this game, as illustrated by just how much has been crammed into the experience. This is a massive open world RPG that – if, in addition to the main story, you’re also doing all of the side quests and every single side activity while taking the time to thoroughly explore each map – can keep you glued to your screen for upwards of even 150 hours.

PALWORLD

In its early access form, Palworld isn’t technically a “finished” game, but Pocketpair’s open world survival MMO is still a sizeable game. How sizeable exactly? Well, given its genre, it is designed around being highly replayabe, which gives it an inherent leg up in this area. Though a 30-40 hour playthrough is technically enough to get through the game’s critical path, Palworld has enough meat on its bones to keep you occupied for more than twice as long.

HELLDIVERS 2

The beauty of endlessly playable live service multiplayer games like Helldivers 2 (i.e. the good ones, which is admittedly a bit of a rare breed) is that you can play them almost infinitely. Not literally, maybe, but Arrowhead Game Studios’ co-op shooter is so incredibly well made and boasts such a strong core gameplay loop that many have already clocked an almost unreasonable amount of time into the game since it came out earlier this year.

ONCE HUMAN

Starry Studio’s open world multiplayer survival game Once Human is definitely a flawed piece, with issues such as some tedious mechanics, combat issues, rough storytelling, and more dragging it down. There is, however, plenty to enjoy here as well, and if that stuff does end up grabbing you, the good news for you is that Once Human has no shortage of content to get lost in.

THRONE AND LIBERTY

We’ve mentioned a few multiplayer-centric games here that find different ways to keep players coming back- but that is, of course, baked into the very DNA of an MMORPG. That is admittedly a genre with a historically low hit rate, and though Amazon Games’ Throne and Liberty is far from perfect, it does give players plenty of reasons to keep diving into its fantasy world. Grindiness may be an issue, but at least there’s plenty to do.

TEKKEN 8

A good fighting game has several tricks up its sleeve to keep players glued over a prolonged period of time, and Tekken 8 is one of the very best fighters out there, which means this is the sort of game that you can completely lose yourself to. You can technically see the game through to full completion in under 20 hours, but Tekken 8 delivers one of the most addictive and captivating fighting experiences out there, which means pouring in that amount of time multiple times over is very much conceivable.

DRAGON BALL: SPARKING! ZERO

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO is a very different kind of fighting game from Tekken 8, but it, too, is not only good enough, but also substantial enough to keep players busy for long stretches. The core mechanics are immaculate, there’s plenty of content on offer, and the roster is stupidly crowded. Dragon Ball fans can spend days upon days just pitting an infinite combination of characters against each other.

RISE OF THE RONIN

Team Ninja’s open world debut did not go as well as many would have hoped, and Rise of the Ronin is certainly nowhere near as good as the Nioh games, but though it’s got its share of rough edges, it’s also undoubtedly a large game. It does suffer from rote and repetitive design, which means not everyone may have the patience for everything that the game encompasses, but given the fact that the combat and traversal mechanics always remain highly enjoyable at their core, spending close to a hundred hours playing Rise of the Ronin might have some appeal.

SATISFACTORY

Over five years in early access had assured many that Satisfactory would be good, and sure enough, it’s good. How good? Well, just its main story alone requires over a hundred hours, while a completionist run is going to take you roughly twice as long. And in spite of those daunting demands, this is still a game that those who’ve played it will heartily will recommend to you. That’s how good Satisfactory is.

DRAGON’S DOGMA 2

Sticking to the critical path to finish the main story will see you putting roughly 25-30 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2, but honestly, that’s one of the worst possible ways to play this game. Capcom’s open world action RPG constantly begs players to go off the beaten path, mess around with its sandbox systems, follow your curiosity, and be distracted by the abundant optional content on offer. There’s lots to do in Dragon’s Dogma 2, the majority of which is a blast, to the extent that even a comprehensive 100-hour playthrough can pass by in a flash.

ELDEN RING: SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE

From Software has made it a habit of delivering expansive, action RPGs that can keep you busy for long, long stretches, and Elden Ring’s expansion Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t buck that trend. From a lengthy critical path line to plentiful side content to a number of difficult to find secrets, Shadow of the Erdtree has no shortage of things to do- and thanks to its slick combat, engrossing boss fights, and eye-popping art style, you’re going to have an absolute blast as you’re doing all of it.

GRANBLUE FANTASY: RELINK

Simply playing through its main story is a solid enough way to get a taste of Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but Cygames’ action RPG is at its best when you truly dive into its co-op offerings, optional content, and its sizeable endgame. Repetitive quest design and grindy progression can be grating, but the game’s pros outweigh its cons, which is why so many of its players have happily sunk over a hundred hours into it.

Please note there are major spoilers ahead!

Black Myth Wukong

Developer Game Science produced a great action adventure in the form of Black Myth Wukong, taking the known narrative elements of the classic novel Journey to the West and crafting a thrilling sequence of memorable boss fights one after another. While the narrative beats follow a more traditional approach to storytelling, Black Myth delivers a fitting finale to the entire ordeal with a showdown against the Stone Monkey which is followed by a long sequence that puts an end to the tale of Wukong and his search for the Six Senses. Of course, there are multiple endings involved – but each of them is equally emotional in its own right.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

Did Hellblade 2 disappoint some because it wasn’t a sprawling experience or stuck too closely to the previous game’s linearity? Undoubtedly. However, the continuation of Senua’s journey as she embarked on a blood campaign of revenge was one that still delivered. Between the stunning visuals and performances, with Melina Juergens once again killing it, going beyond the confines of Senua’s darkness to rescue others offered a new dimension to the overall story. Of course, the combat also delivered thanks to its visceral nature and animations.