## Favorite Games of 2024

Managed to save up enough credit card rewards to cover the purchase of a SteamDeck OLED in April of 2024. It completely changed my ability to play games. Rather than being tied to one spot in the house, I could play anywhere. The other great thing is the ability to just pause the game and turn the screen off and I can quickly pick it up and put it down. It’s made gaming sessions much more ad hoc and enjoyable.

Below are my top few games that I played in 2024. all of these were primarily played in the SteamDeck.

## Sea of Stars > Great characters, visuals, soundtrack, story and game play. Definitely my personal game of the year. I have nothing negative to say about it. The soundtrack was so good I picked up a copy of it on vinyl.

## CrossCode > This game is a little older. I came across it because of the trailer for Alabaster Dawn. CrossCode is by the same studio and I wanted to see if they had any other games I could check out while waiting for the release of Alabaster Dawn. This had some of the best and most unique puzzles of any game I’ve played. They continued to add new mechanics all the way through the end of the game.

## Chained Echoes > This one was a little bit more of a traditional RPG but had some unique combat elements that helped to keep it fresh throughout the game. The story, characters and design were also really well done.

## Honorable Mentions

• Balatro A really unique game that I have really enjoyed both on the SteamDeck and the mobile version. I’m honestly a little surprised it didn’t win more awards last year.
• Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors I just really enjoyed this one. Fun to just pick it up and play a round. Lots of unique weapons and builds that kept it feeling fresh each time I played.