Indiana Jones may have arrived too late for many awards ceremonies, but it’s definitely one of the best games of 2024 regardless

I used to be there at The Game Awards 2024, on the bottom in Los Angeles. I don’t know the way it all felt and performed out on-line, how the onslaught of advertisements, Muppet Interludes, and infrequently rushed awards classes labored on-line – however within the room, my first time experiencing that approach, it completely simply works. Witnessing it that approach left me with just one predominant thought: god, 2024 was a fairly nice yr for video video games.

One sport not really represented within the nominations for Geoff Keighley’s industry-leading awards occasion was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The sport had a second on the evening because of an on-stage look by Indy originator Harrison Ford, online game depictor Troy Baker, and Bethesda mastermind Todd Howard – however the precise sport launched a few weeks too late for the cut-off.

As a result of for some motive The Recreation Awards is in December yearly, its calendar yr runs roughly from late November or early December via ‘til the identical time the following yr. I by no means fairly obtained this – the Oscars are in March and Golden Globes in January for precisely this motive: so the awards cowl a calendar yr. For no matter motive – I suppose as a result of want for promoting and divulges to energy the present – The Recreation Awards falls awkwardly within the run-up to Christmas.

That signifies that every year there’s a few video games that launch too late to be thought of for the awards the yr they have been launched in. This yr, one such sport is Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, which suggests no GOTY nominee, no finest efficiency nominee, no finest path or design nominee – all issues the sport moderately deserves. I’m kicking myself as I write this, as a result of in doing so I’ve realized that we didn’t even give it a wee nod in our Alternate Awards. I hope all my fellow judges and panellists maintain it in thoughts for 2025’s awards, when it’ll be eligible.

Anyway, all of that is to say that Indiana Jones is completely one in all my Video games of the 12 months for 2024. Is it my precise sport of the yr? Most likely not, no, as a result of that is the yr in which Balatro released – I’ve 170 hours logged on that on Steam, and god is aware of what number of extra on my phone. However anyone else on Workforce VG247 had already determined to jot down about Balatro, and The Nice Circle might be my second favourite sport – which is not any small feat on this stacked yr.

I imply, severely. I’m the nerd whose hyper Closing Fantasy fandom led to my founding an FF fansite as a tween, which then later morphed into one of many greatest RPG fan nerd destinations on the web. This can be a yr wherein Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launched – the very best Closing Fantasy sport in at the very least fifteen years, a complete licensed banger – and it isn’t my sport of the yr. It isn’t even second! That is additionally the yr wherein Dragon’s Dogma 2, a sport I fairly actually dreamed about, got here out.

However there’s one thing magical a couple of sport like Indiana Jones. This can be a title I wasn’t even finally all that bothered about. I like first and third movies particularly, however later messy outings considerably soured me on the entire sequence – and with the mess that’s fashionable Star Wars, I wasn’t solely certain I might belief Disney. Plus, Harrison is simply too previous – how will you probably substitute him?

Mainly, I wasn’t certain if I actually wished this. In truth, I used to be fairly certain I didn’t. And but what MachineGames managed to do is present one thing I didn’t know that I wished – slightly bit Riddick, slightly bit Immersive Sim, one thing that’s really a bit like what I dream and hope IO Interactive’s upcoming James Bond sport will likely be.

I might spend extra time rehashing my glowing five-star review, however I don’t really want to. The purpose is that no matter how properly folks handle to recollect it when submitting their Recreation Awards ballots after no matter 2025 holds, this sport needs to be held up as one of many absolute best in a fully killer yr. It’s sensible. Play it. Cheers.