Got a PlayStation 5 but not sure what to play next? With the massive library available, it’s easy to get a little lost scrolling through titles. From award-winning adventures to intense action RPG experiences, there’s a world of incredible games to explore. You’ve got options across every genre, whether you’re into fast-paced shooters, immersive stories that will suck you in for hours, like Elden Ring, or epic multiplayer challenges. And let’s not forget those exclusive gems that make the PS5 shine, like Demon’s Souls or the latest Final Fantasy installment.
Even if you’re a seasoned gamer, sometimes you just need a little inspiration to dive back into the console and discover new worlds. Whether you’re after complex game modes that push your skills or just want a taste of that next-gen power, these PS5 games will give you plenty of reasons to keep your controller close. So, if you’re ready for the ultimate adventure (or maybe just an excuse to escape for a while), we’ve got some suggestions that will keep the boredom at bay.
In recent years, reflecting on the past 12 months has seemed to bring back nothing but woe. Surprisingly, though, 2024 saw a higher number of candidates for good things in tech than bad. In spite of the continued AI onslaught, widespread dissatisfaction and worldwide political conflict, there were some bright spots this year that put smiles on faces and took minds off things. As we get ready to start saying "2025" when making plans, here’s hoping that reminiscing about the best things in tech in 2024 can help us remember joyful times.
LocalThunk
You likely don’t know the name LocalThunk, which is the handle of a Canadian game developer who has yet to share his real identity. You do, however, know his handywork. LocalThunk made a little game called Balatro, which has been the indie success story of the year. The massive cultural footprint of this game instantly put him on the Mount Rushmore of solo developers, alongside Daisuke Amaya (Cave Story), Markus Persson (Minecraft), Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) and Eric Barone (Stardew Valley), among others.
Balatro — which can justly be described as a wacky full-fledged sequel to poker —came out back in February, and has since sold millions of copies across multiple platforms. It has popped up on numerous 2024 best-of lists and even nabbed a nomination for GOTY at The Game Awards. To call it a hit is something of an understatement. Balatro has become so popular that it has crossed over with other gaming franchises and inspired a physical deck of cards.
LocalThunk is now, very likely, worth a whole lot of money. Good for him. He created something new that everyone wanted, a venture that took three years. Despite the similarities to poker, the developer is extremely committed to keeping Balatro pure and out of the hands of gambling platforms. He recently revealed that he created a will that stipulated that the IP never be sold or licensed to any gambling company or casino.
I highly recommend checking out the game, which is available for both consoles and mobile devices. It will likely burn into your brain, leaving you unable to think or talk about anything else. Actually, wait until you have some time off work before giving it a download. — Lawrence Bonk, contributing writer
Bluesky
After several months in an invitation-only beta, Bluesky finally ditched its waitlist and opened to everyone at the start of 2024. At the time, it had just over 3 million users, a handful of employees and a lot of ideas about how to build a better space for public conversations. Since then, the service has grown to more than 25 million users, including a number of celebrities, politicians and other prominent figures who were once active on X.
Bluesky is still very much an underdog. Meta’s Threads has more than 10 times as many total users and far more resources. Even so, Bluesky has notched some significant wins. The open source service nearly tripled in size in the last few months of the year, thanks to a surge in new users following the election. The platform has also had an outsized influence when it comes to features, with Meta already copying unique ideas like starter packs and custom feeds.
Bluesky isn’t without issues — it needs to come up with a better approach to verification for example — but it’s still our best hope for an open, decentralized platform not controlled by a multibillion dollar advertising company. While Meta is reportedly preparing to point its ad machine at Threads and has already throttled the reach of political content, Bluesky’s leaders have made it clear they want to take a different approach. And while it’s hard to imagine Bluesky’s growth eclipsing Threads anytime soon, Bluesky feels more relevant than ever. — Karissa Bell, senior reporter
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold
We’ve seen so many competing designs on foldable phones over the years. Samsung started out with an inward folding hinge on the original Galaxy Fold and stuck with it as the Z Fold line has morphed into the long, skinny baton-like devices we have today. Then there were others like the Huawei Mate X which featured outward folding builds. More recently, companies have teased the first generation of gadgets with tri-folding displays. But after testing out Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold this year, it feels like keeping things simple was the winning formula all along.
That’s because instead of trying to create a foldable with a unique aspect ratio or screen size, Google basically took the exterior display from the standard Pixel 9 and then installed a flexible display almost exactly twice the size on the inside. So when it’s closed, you have a phone that looks, feels and operates just like a typical glass-brick but when opened can also expand to become a mini tablet. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also has the best cameras on any foldable on sale today while not being much thicker or heavier than its more traditional siblings. But perhaps the biggest victory is just seeing how much of a jump in build quality and usability the Pro Fold offers over its predecessor without making any major sacrifices. I just wish it was a bit more affordable so more people could experience the magic of a big foldable phone. — Sam Rutherford, senior reviewer
AR Glasses
For years, companies like Meta and Snap have hyped up the promise of augmented reality — not just the animated selfie lenses and other effects we can see on our phones, but standalone hardware capable of overlaying information onto the world around us. But despite these promises, actual AR glasses felt just out of reach.
This year, that finally started to change. Snap released its second pair of AR Spectacles, and Meta finally showed off its Orion AR glasses prototype. After trying out both, it’s easy to see why these companies have invested so much time and money on these projects. To be clear, both companies still have a lot of work ahead of them if they want their AR glasses to turn into a product their users will want to actually buy. Right now, the components are still too expensive, and the glasses are way too bulky (this is especially true for Snap, if the social media reactions to my selfies are any indication). But after years of hearing little more than lofty promises and sporadic research updates, we finally saw real progress.
Snap has lined up dozens of developers, including Niantic, Lego and Industrial Light and Magic who are already building apps for AR. Meta is, for now, keeping its AR work internal, but its neural wristband — which may be coming to a future pair of its RayBan-branded glasses — feels like a game-changer for next-gen controllers. So while AR glasses aren’t ready to replace our phones just yet, it’s getting a lot easier to imagine a world in which they might. — K.B.
ASUS Zenbook Duo
The classic clamshell with a screen up top and a physical keyboard down below isn’t going away anytime soon. But this year, the Zenbook Duo showed that laptops still have plenty of room for improvement. That’s because after multiple attempts by various manufacturers to refine and streamline dual-screen laptops, ASUS finally put everything together into a single cohesive package with the Zenbook Duo. It packs not one but two 14-inch OLED displays with 120Hz refresh rates, solid performance, a surprisingly good selection of ports (including full-size HDMI) and a built-in kickstand. And weighing 3.6 pounds and measuring 0.78 inches at its thickest, it's not much bigger or heftier than more traditional rivals.
You also get a physical keyboard, except this one connects wirelessly via Bluetooth and can be either placed on top of the lower screen like a normal laptop or moved practically anywhere you want. This allows the Zenbook Duo to transform into something like a portable all-in-one complete with two stacked displays, which are truly excellent for multitasking. And because the keyboard also charges wirelessly, you never have to worry about keeping it topped off. But the best part is that starting at $1,500, it doesn’t cost that much more than a typical premium notebook either, so even when you’re traveling you never have to be limited to a single, tiny display. — S.R.
DJI Neo
DJI’s tiny $200 Neo drone blew into the content creator market like a tornado. It was relatively cheap and simple to use, allowing beginners to create stunning aerial video at the touch of a button, while taking off and landing on their palms. At the same time, the Neo offered advanced features like manual piloting with a phone or controller, subject tracking and even impressive acrobatics.
Weighing just 156 grams and equipped with people-safe propeller guards, DJI’s smallest drone can be piloted nearly anywhere with no permit needed. And unlike Snap’s Pixy drone, it’s far more than a toy.. It can fly at speeds up to 36 mph and perform tricks like flips and slides. It also offers reasonably high-quality 4K 30p video. All of that allows creators to track themselves when walking, biking or vlogging, adding high-quality aerial video that was previously inaccessible for most.
There are some negative points. The Neo lacks any obstacle detection sensors, so you need to be careful when flying it to avoid crashes. Video quality isn’t quite as good as slightly more expensive drones like the DJI Mini 3. And the propeller noise is pretty offensive if you plan to operate it around a lot of people. Perhaps the biggest problem is that DJI’s products might be banned in the US by 2026, even though it escaped that fate this year.
For $200, though, it offers excellent value and opens up new creative possibilities for content creators. Much like the company’s incredibly popular Osmo Pocket 3, the Neo shows how DJI is innovating in the creator space to a higher level than rivals like Sony or Canon. — Steve Dent, contributing writer
reMarkable Paper Pro
reMarkable’s distraction-free writing slates have always offered an elegant alternative to other tablets. The second generation model is great, but the advent of the Paper Pro has highlighted where that device was lacking. It’s certainly one of the best pieces of hardware I’ve tested this year and, if I owned one, I’d likely make it a key part of my daily workflow. The bigger display, faster internals and the fact it can now render colors elevates it above the competition. It’s gone from a useful tool to an essential one, especially if you need to wrench yourself away from the distractions of the internet.
It’s still far too expensive for what it is, and qualifies as a luxury purchase in these straightened times. It won’t stack up in a spec-for-spec comparison to an iPad, even if they’re clearly catering for two very different audiences. But, judging it on its merits as a piece of technology, it does the job it was built to do far better than anything else on the market. What can I say, I just think it's neat. — Daniel Cooper, senior reporter
NotebookLM
Maybe my AI dalliances are far too mundane – I spend more time trying to get worthwhile shopping advice from Claude and ChatGPT, for instance, rather than playing around with music generators like Suno or even image creators like Dall-E. But for this podcast fan, it’s Google’s NotebookLM that was the big AI revelation of 2024.
The audio offshoot of Google’s Project Tailwind, an AI-infused notebook application, NotebookLM synthesizes a full-on podcast that summarizes the documents, videos or links you feed it. Delivered as a dialogue between male and female co-hosts, it feels like a next-gen two-person version of the Duplex software agent that Google unveiled in 2018. The resulting audio stories (just a few minutes in length) wouldn’t sound terribly out of place on your local NPR station, right down to copious use of “ums,” “ahs,” pauses and co-hosts talking over each other with a relevant detail or two. Yes, it doesn’t have any more depth than the chatter on the average TV morning show, occasionally botches pronunciation – sometimes spelling out common acronyms letter by letter, for instance – and it’s just as prone to hallucinations as any other current AI model. And I certainly don’t think real podcast hosts have anything to fear here (at least, not yet.)
But to me, NotebookLM doesn’t feel like the rest of the AI slop that’s invading the web these days. It’s a win on three fronts: The baseline version is free, it’s dead simple to use (just feed it one or more links, or a blob of text) – and it can be downright fun. This was the system’s take when I fed it the full text of Moby Dick, for example – and that’s small potatoes compared to, say, the hosts “discovering” they’re not human. Thankfully, unlike the plethora of projects that Google summarily kills off, NotebookLM seems to be flourishing. I haven’t tried the new “phone in” feature or the paid Plus subscription, but both suggest that we’ll be hearing more from Audio Overviews in 2025. — John Falcone, executive editor
PC CPU competition heats up
For the past decade, the story around laptop and desktop CPUs has basically been a back and forth between Intel and AMD. At times, AMD’s sheer ambition and aggressive pricing would make its chips the PC enthusiast choice, but then Intel would also hit back with innovations like its 12th-gen hybrid processors. When Apple decided to move away from Intel’s chips in 2020, and proved that its own mobile Arm architecture could dramatically outpace x86 and x64 designs, it was clear that the industry was ready to shift beyond the AMD and Intel rivalry.
So it really was only a matter of time until Qualcomm followed in Apple’s footsteps and released its Snapdragon X Elite chips, which powered the new Surface Pro, Surface Laptop and other Copilot+ PCs. Those mobile chips were faster than ever before, far more efficient than Intel and AMD’s best, and they were aided by some timely Windows on Arm improvements. While you may still run into some older Windows apps that don’t run on Arm machines, the experience today is dramatically better than it was just a few years ago.
Some consider gift cards not the most personal of gifts, but I say that's not the case. They allow you to get exactly what you want with no confusion, and (typically) both gifter and giftee walk away happy. But maybe you received a few gift cards for the holidays and are stumped on what to buy with them — Engadget can help. Here, we've gathered some of our favorite gadgets and services of the year that are all worthy ways to spend your gift card money, from wireless mice to coffee gear to gaming controllers.
If you received a bunch of gift cards for the holidays, consider it a blessing. Whoever gave them to you likely wanted to give you a gift you'd actually use, and rather assume (incorrectly), they wanted to ensure you'd get their money's worth on something you actually like. Maybe there's nothing on your wish list at the moment, but you're keen to spend that gift card on something that will make your commute easier or your home feel more cozy. Below are some of our favorite items that are well worth that $50 gift card you're eager to use up, from power banks to streaming sticks to smart lights.
No game this year captured the imagination of the Engadget crew quite like Balatro did, and when it came time for each staff member to pitch their favorite games of 2024, everyone – and I mean everyone – wanted to write about Balatro. In the end, rather than forcing everyone to fight for the chance to write about their love of the game, we instead decided to ask the team to write their own individual take on Balatro.
My Steam Deck is a Balatro machine and I love it
My Steam Deck is a Balatro machine at this point, and no, I’m not complaining about this. I’ve broken out my Steam Deck for plenty of games before Balatro and I plan on playing lots more on it in the future, but for now and potentially until I take my final breath, its primary function is joker generation.
First of all, Balatro just feels nice on a handheld device. It’s the kind of game that you can play passively while watching TV or listening to a podcast, or with intense focus as you try to collect jokers, stakes, achievements and stickers on the way to Completionist++. The Steam Deck is the ideal platform for this type of game, because, especially in combination with a comfy PC setup, it allows players to flow between these two states without losing progression. The mobile version of Balatro is rad and the Switch version is peachy, but I started playing on PC and, more than 500 hours later, I’m reluctant to start over on any other platform.
I absolutely love curling up on the couch with Balatro, playing it on the PC at my desk, using it as a distraction on long commutes, and getting a few hands in before bed. The Balatro Machine — uh, I mean, Steam Deck — enables my obsession in a seamless way.
— Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter
Balatro is a card game you can feel
Balatro is a game you mostly play in your head. There’s a giant array of modifier cards, each with their own effects and consequences, and you work through their permutations like you’re tinkering with a chemistry kit. It’s a game of decisions, all of which are contingent on the decisions you’ve made prior. Some work, most blow up in your face.
This is what makes Balatro engaging, but it’s not my favorite thing about it. What I like most is how tangible it is. How it makes a digital playing card game have any felt impact at all. It’s the little tck and shake each card does when scored. The donk when a joker adds to your multiplier, the way the donks speed up and rise in pitch as buffs and retriggers pile up. The thrrrp of the deck reshuffling. The brief delay upon opening a booster pack to raise anticipation, how the pack disintegrates to emphasize the finality of your decision. The sound of coins colliding when you collect interest or buy something. The fire that burns and rises around your score when you’ve passed the goal in one hand, a dopamine hit within a dopamine hit. The way the air gets sucked out of the trancy music when you inevitably fail.
You are not a character in Balatro. You’re just you, staring at cards set against swirling colors. Yet all of these flourishes go a long way toward sucking you into that vortex, really locking you in it, somehow giving a game that most resembles video poker a sense of physical place. Balatro is, among many things, an A-1 example of economical sound design. The easiest way to dilute it is to play it on mute.
— Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter
The real Balatro was the joker stickers we earned along the way
I am not an achievement hunter — I’m the sort of person who skips sidequests that aren’t interesting and rarely replays games after finishing them. The one “Platinumed” game in my PlayStation collection is the PS4 version of Resogun, and I have 100-percented precisely zero games on Xbox. Why, then, was 2024 the year that I became obsessed with achieving Completionist++ on Balatro?
I received the Completionist Steam achievement, which you get by discovering every card in the game, after a month with the game. It took me another five months to get Completionist+, awarded to those who beat Ante 8 with every deck on gold difficulty. The one thing left for me to do was the game’s toughest challenge: Competitionist++, which involves getting gold stickers on every joker by beating Ante 8 on gold difficulty with each of them active.
As of writing, Completionist++ is still a distant dream. It’s easy to feel like you’ve mastered the game after beating Completionist+; There are simple joker combinations that can take you past Ante 8 with every deck. Completionist++ strips those safety nets from you, forcing you to beat the game’s hardest level without relying on surefire strategies. While I do occasionally miss my high-score chasing early days with Balatro, this challenge has given the game a completely new dynamic for me, as I figure out how to craft a win out of jokers I considered useless before.
If you’ve made your way through all the stakes and are wondering what to do next, Completionist++ is a challenge worth setting yourself. Just a word of warning: I’ve played for 460 hours across my PC and Steam Deck, and I’ve only unlocked 961 of the game’s 1,200 stickers.
— Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor
Balatro is a deep, complex game for filthy casuals like me
Some of my friends and co-workers are taking Balatro to some wild extremes. Aaron told me he's unlocked and completed about 95 percent of the game; I meanwhile sit at a paltry 19 percent. Another friend routinely shares quick videos from his runs where he racks up hundreds of millions of points in a single hand with Jokers I can't fathom, while my best single hand sits at a little over 3 million.
The good thing, though? This isn’t discouraging; it’s a feature, not a bug. Balatro has somehow managed to be the kind of game you can sink hundreds of hours into in an all-out quest for completion and mastery. Or you can do as I do and pick it up, play for 30 minutes or an hour a few times a week, and come back to it again with plenty to do when you get the itch.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get to the point where I’m grabbing a billion points on a single hand, but my gaming time is limited and I usually choose to spend it on the PS5. But one of the great joys of Balatro is that you can go on a bender and play it for hours, and then not come back to it for days or weeks, and then just pick it up and keep making progress. You’re not going to lose any skills or forget your objectives. It’s a casual, pick-up-and-play game that also hides some incredible depth, and games like that don’t come around too often.
— Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor
Balatro is an almost perfect mobile port
2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. Not only did the mobile version cost $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam (or console ports), but there are no intrusive ads or extra purchases anywhere in the game. That's including all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.
On top of that, there’s essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, that’s due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, you’d be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when you’re smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the system doesn’t get bogged down. Throw in a satisfying interface, support for cloud saves, multiple languages and profiles plus a high contrast option that's great for accessibility, and you've got an app that plays well on practically any device.
In fact, I’d argue that foldables like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for Balatro without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and there’s plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way. I have a few minor complaints you can read about in my longer piece on Balatro's beauty on mobile devices, but as a whole I'm confident I’m going to get more than my money’s worth for years to come.
— Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/engadgets-balatro-of-the-year-2024-140021833.html?src=rss
This year may not have been as jam packed as 2023 was for gaming, but there were still plenty of amazing new releases. Whether you love a good indie or a big-budget production, this year had you covered. All you needed to do was look a bit deeper than you might have in 2023.
Animal Well
The core of Animal Well isn’t that structurally complicated: It’s a lock-and-key Metroidvania. You go to places to unlock other places and abilities. There are puzzle bits. Platforming bits. Bosses. A sense of progression. Beating the core “story” opens up a couple layers of admirably elaborate and increasingly meta secrets, but let’s be real, most people interested in those are just going to look up the answers online.
And yet, you play it, and you can’t help but think there isn’t much like it nowadays. Why? It’s not just the lo-fi aesthetic. It’s the fact that you never learn what your little blob guy is. It’s giving you a map to mark up yourself instead of providing any instructions. It’s accidentally realizing the disc you’ve held onto for the last three hours isn’t just for throwing. It’s the big monkey that flings rocks at you, just because. It’s the way each screen is a static shot, the way the camera centers the world instead of the player. It’s the eternal wonder and pleasure of uncovering what lies in wait in the dark, behind us, under our feet, outside of our little wells. And then having no clue what it actually means. That’s real stuff.
Animal Well is that rare thing: a modern video game that trusts you to figure it out and has enough grace to let you stumble in the shadows. I bet the ending will leave you slack-jawed.
— Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter
Astro Bot
Astro Bot is a paean to the three-decade history of PlayStation. It shines a spotlight on every crevice of the brand's timeline, turning both mascots and long-forgotten characters from Sony's archives into adorable bots that you collect along your journey.
More importantly, though, Astro Bot stands squarely in the pantheon of great PlayStation games in its own right. It's an exquisitely designed platformer that's bursting with personality, wit and gorgeous visuals. Team Asobi packed its ultra-charming game with clever ideas and mechanics to keep you on your toes. It even feels great thanks to smart use of the DualSense controller's haptic feedback.
Video games aren’t always supposed to be fun. But Astro Bot wrings pure joy out of every single moment — at least when it’s not kicking your ass in the tough bonus levels.
— Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter
Batman: Arkham Shadow
I never get sick of playing the Batman Arkham games. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve solved all the Riddler’s puzzles or foiled The Joker’s plans. Batman: Arkham Shadow does a superb job of replicating all the things that make the original Batman games fun, like using gadgets to rack up combos in hand-to-hand combat and swooping out of the darkness to pick off armed henchmen. The game’s most impressive feature, however, isn’t the fighting, Batarang-ing or the satisfying feeling you get when you make a Tyger guard’s leg bend in the other direction. It’s the story.
Batman: Arkham Shadow goes deep into the legend of Batman and its Rogues Gallery of thematic villains. It unpacks Bruce Wayne’s story of perpetual pain and need for emotional redemption just as well as any of the other games and even some of the big-screen adaptations. Batman: Arkham Shadow shows that VR games have a lot of potential to be more than just mindless shooting galleries and boxing simulators.
— Danny Gallagher, Contributing Reporter
Balatro
Of all the games you see on this list, not one was as universally loved as Balatro. Nearly every member of the Engadget team wanted to write about the game. So instead of limiting ourselves to just one blurb, we wrote an entire ode to Balatro.
Crow Country
When I first heard about Crow Country, a 2024 release that was heavily influenced by PS1 survival horror games, I was really intrigued but also a bit worried that it’d be little more than a nostalgia grab. But once I got to playing it, I totally fell in love, and found it to be a unique experience even with all the loving nods to its inspirations.
Crow Country follows Mara Forest, a somewhat shady protagonist, as she explores an abandoned amusement park in search of its missing owner, Edward Crow. There are constant hints to a terrible event that led to the park’s shutdown, and strange skinless monsters are all over the place. In typical survival horror form, you have to manage your resources like ammo and health kits, and you’ll encounter a bunch of puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to progress. I played Crow Country before the introduction of Hard mode, and found it to be spooky and engaging — but, to my surprise, also kind of cozy, which I really liked. But there’s a game mode for everyone. If you want a more riveting experience, go for Hard mode. If you don’t want to face any enemies, there’s Exploration mode. Survival, the “normal” mode, falls in between those two.
Crow Country is a great game with some light horror and a story that was fun to piece together along the way. It’s perfect if you want to play a horror game that has a creepy atmosphere but won’t have your heart in your throat the entire time.
— Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard wastes no time showing off the full glory of its graphical prowess and epic storytelling. Once you’ve spent some time in its (excellent) character creator, it’s only a few minutes until you’re fighting to stop the end of the world. Solas, the previous game’s surprise villain, is trying to tear apart the boundary between the spirit and human world. And in the process, his magical ceremony fills the screen with a glorious array of neon lights, color and shadows. If you’ve got a modern GPU, you’re in for a ray tracing workout.
I’m a gamer of simple pleasures, and I’ll admit, that bombastic opening sequence alone was enough to make me fall for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. What kept me playing, though, was BioWare’s classic formula of intriguing characters and sharp storytelling. I’ll forgive the many missteps of Mass Effect Andromeda, Veilguard’s crew of ragtag heroes make it clear BioWare still has its narrative.
What’s truly surprising, though, is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is also a decent action RPG, with fast-paced and challenging combat that feels more reminiscent of the recent God of War games than anything from Dragon Age proper. There’s a rich skill tree to follow, and you can always re-spec without penalty.
For a game that could take a hundred hours to truly finish, Veilguard still manages to feel fresh and exciting every time I sit down to play. So really, I don’t mind if it doesn’t hit as hard as previous entries, or if it doesn’t give you as many consequential choices as Baldur’s Gate 3. Sometimes it just feels good to hang out with your fantasy buds and crack a few demon skulls.
— Devinda Hardawar, Senior Editor
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
The second part of the anticipated remake of 1997’s Final Fantasy VII uses the power of the PlayStation 5 to create a more significant (if not entirely open) world. (It’s also one of the best games to showcase what the PS5 Pro is capable of, offering smoother framerates and crisper textures and detail.) It’s a bigger, better, game than Remake.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands Remake's often constricted alleys and buildings into expansive plains, mountain hikes, and Mythril caverns. What’s interesting about this middle chapter is that the ending of Remake seemingly cut ties with the story we all knew from the original. Despite that, Cloud, Aerith and the rest of the motley crew tour most of the same towns and destinations of the original game. That feeling of nostalgia is paired with a modern, further refined action RPG battle system, with new synergy attacks, materia and summon spells. It’s all a little convoluted, but also meant I got to lean into my favorite characters and their play styles. (No one likes Cait Sith.)
It’s a rolling adventure that folds in extra character and story detail. While exploration in this middle chapter isn’t as expansive as I might have liked, the themed areas are all different from each other, packed with their own battle and exploration themes. I just love the soundtrack of Rebirth – I love it so much that it made it into my most-played albums of 2024.
— Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
When I first learned an Indiana Jones game was in the works, it seemed instantly superfluous. What’s the point when the Tomb Raider and Uncharted games have spent decades translating Indy’s pulpy action into the world of video games? I should have known better than to doubt MachineGames, the developers behind the recent (and excellent) Wolfenstein games. If anything, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has more in common with Dishonored and Hitman than the bombastic set pieces that have plagued Uncharted’s Nathan Drake. It’s a first-person game, for one, and it focuses more on stealth and problem-solving than mowing down dozens of baddies.
The game begins with a stunning recreation of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, a sequence that had me continually dropping my jaw. Many shots are directly mirrored from the original film, the Indy model looks surprisingly life-like, and perhaps the biggest shock of all, voice actor Troy Baker delivers a solid interpretation of a young Harrison Ford. Honestly, his Indiana Jones sounds more like the character I remember than Ford does in the recent (and genuinely great) Dial of Destiny.
While you’re equipped with a gun early on, most of your time is spent investigating large areas like the Vatican, sneaking around restricted areas and punching fascists in the face. You’ll also encounter a few puzzles that pose just enough of a challenge to be satisfying, without being overly annoying.
Five hours into the game, I realized I hadn’t yet fired my gun. And it would take several more hours before that was actually necessary. I can’t think of many other action franchises that practiced such restraint.
MachineGames didn’t just make a good Indiana Jones game — it crafted one of the best Indiana Jones experiences ever made. I’ll take The Great Circle over Temple of Doom any day. It’s so good, it belongs in a museum.
— D.H.
Infinity Nikki
From the hours we spend transmogging items or building gear sets for max stats, fashion has always been low-key essential in video games. So it's about damn time that someone decided to take the plunge, accept that style is everything and put it at the heart of an extremely charming game. Infinity Nikki is the most time I have ever spent in a game's photo mode. How could I not? My in-game wardrobe has been filling up with pieces all over the style spectrum – from the ultimate cozy loungewear to absurdly frivolous pastel confections – and I love them all. Dressing up in fabulous outfits is a big part of Infinity Nikki's immaculate vibes, but there's a whole lot of game here that has wisely taken its design cues from other very good titles.
The influence of Genshin Impact is clear in the approach to gacha systems. The open-world exploration and side questing feel reminiscent of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The Whimstar mechanics are right out of any 3D Mario. But every idea has been toned down so there's no stress and very little challenge. That sounds like it should be boring. It's not. Being in Miraland is a complete joy.
— Anna Washenko, Contributing Reporter
INDIKA
I haven’t stopped thinking about INDIKA since I played it in May. It’s not a constant train of thought or anything, but memories of the game float through my consciousness fairly often and I welcome them each time — funny, heartwrenching and all the emotions in between. And yet, INDIKA is not a game I freely recommend to every person. It’s a satirical and surreal tale about the devil living inside a nun’s head, and while it has laugh-out-loud dialogue and cute buddy-cop moments, it’s also laced with scenes of sexual violence. No matter how delicately and powerfully these scenes are handled, they’re still heavy.
But, if you’re up for it, INDIKA is an utterly unique third-person adventure that deftly balances levity and agony. It offers a flurry of whimsical absurdity, religious criticism and raw human suffering, always with a wink and a nod. INDIKA thrives in the messy area between pleasure and discomfort, and it’s worth a play for anyone seeking something mature and original.
— Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is composed of contradictions. It’s a distillation of everything that makes a puzzle game tick, and it’s also a complete subversion of the genre. It’s heartwarming but eerie, mysterious yet satisfying, chaotic and utterly logical. It’s modern, vintage and futuristic all at once.
In Lorelei, players are stranded at the gates of an otherworldly hotel, and the only thing to do is investigate the creativity and tragedy that’s touched its grounds over the decades. The hotel is vast and dotted with secrets, and each of its rooms houses at least one mystery. There are more than 150 puzzles in the game — memorization tests, logic riddles, perspective tricks, math problems, art projects, lunar phases, astrological clocks and mazes — and the solution in one room often unlocks secrets in other areas. It’s a nonlinear experience, though it feels like everything in the hotel is deeply connected. Even you.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is for fans of puzzles, narrative twists and David Lynch — but really, it’s for anyone who likes rad new video games. This is a game like no other, and it’s proof that innovation is alive and well in the industry, especially among indie developers.
— J.C.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio improves on the Atlus JRPG formula that I’ve loved across various Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games in every way. Perhaps the game’s greatest triumph is making that classic JRPG grindfest feel unique and purposeful. Rather than crawling through bleak, procedurally generated dungeons to level up between key objectives, you’ll be claiming bounties on monsters, helping locals rescue loved ones or searching for mysterious relics. Add to that an engaging and surprisingly grounded storyline, vibrant characters and a fine-tuned battle system, and you have a clear winner.
The one drawback is that I wish its technical underpinnings were stronger; all the beautiful artwork and stylish menus in the world can’t hide that the game is clearly built on the same engine as Persona 5, stretched to its absolute limits. Coming from the slick Persona 3 remake, which utilized Unreal Engine to good effect, it’s a little jarring to see low-res textures, fizzling lines and weird loads between areas. None of this is enough to stop Metaphor from being a game I recommend to anyone who will listen, though.
Here’s hoping that the next Persona game — which has to be around the corner, right? — takes the gameplay improvements of Metaphor and pairs them with an engine that wasn’t built to accommodate the PlayStation 3.
— Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor
Neva
Nevapacks a hell of a punch. This action platformer tells a devastatingly affecting story about disease, entropy and the relationship between human and animal over time. It's mesmerizing on multiple levels: visually, aurally and emotionally.
The story plays out almost wordlessly, with Nomada Studio largely using its environments, enemy encounters and your progression to tell the tale. You play as a warrior named Alba who tries to cleanse the world of a corruptive force that plagues the environment and possesses animals. Her companion is a titular wolf. Neva grows from a pup to an adult throughout the seasons depicted in the game. Alba can call the wolf to her when they're apart, but the timbre of her cries changes depending on how fraught the situation is.
Neva is a relatively short game, but it's one that will stick with you. Just as the blight does to the landscapes and fauna of this sumptuous world.
— K.H.
Nine Sols
2024 may not be over yet, but I can safely say we probably won’t see Team Cherry release Silksong. In other words, it was another painful year for Hollow Knight fans. But if you love Metroidvanias as much as I do, 2024 was easily one of the genre’s best years since 2017. Even if you only count two of this year’s more popular releases, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown andAnimal Well, there was no shortage of incredible Metroidvanias to play over the last 12 months. But if you ask me, most people slept on 2024’s best release: Nine Sols.
Nine Sols is one of those rare experiences where the elevator pitch actually does the game justice. It’s a 2D Metroidvania with a Sekiro-inspired combat system. I’ll be honest, that alone would have been enough to get me hooked, but the reason I’m still thinking about the game months after it came out in May is because of its story. The only thing I’ll say here is that Nine Sols is the product of Red Candle Games. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the studio’s previous game, Devotion, was at the center of a major censorship scandal involving the Chinese government. By all accounts, Devotion featured an incredible story, and I wish I could play it after experiencing Nine Sols. The team at Red Candle Games are master storytellers, and if the way Hollow Knight hid its best narrative elements behind item descriptions and environmental details left you wanting more, I think you owe it to yourself to give Nine Sols a try.
— Igor Bonifacic, Senior Reporter
Pepper Grinder
Pepper Grinder is a brisk, no-bullshit 2D platformer. Its hook is the titular device: a giant frigging drill that lets you chew and leap through each stage like a chainsaw-wielding dolphin. You’re never fully in control while the machine roars along, so navigating the quick stages comes to feel like a cross between bull riding and figure skating, as wild and destructive as it is elegant. Put another way, simply moving in this game is a kinetic thrill. The levels themselves refuse to repeat or linger on ideas for too long — some tedious run-and-gun segments toward the end aside — the boss fights are honest challenges and the whole thing is over in about four hours. That’s fine. Pepper Grinder knows what it is, does what it does and does it well. If only more games could be so focused.
— J.D.
Thank Goodness You're Here!
Dumb, funny, easy to play, I can’t tell if Thank Goodness You’re Here is a tribute to British comedy history or a pastiche about what Americans think British comedic sensibilities are. Either way, it’s a whole lot of fun. You control an unnamed, tiny man who goes around the fictional town of Barnsworth, helping people the only way he can: pummeling objects and people with his little fists. You can hit things, you can jump, and that’s it. That’s all you need to rustle together a flock of seagulls, deliver soup to a sickly man with spaghetti arms and even fix the local fish and chip shop’s fryer.
It looks like a fizzy cartoon that would look at home on Cartoon Network, squeezed through an aggressively Northern English lens. It’s just a shame it doesn’t last longer.
— M.S.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Two years in a row with absolutely stellarZelda games? Sign me up! The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not nearly as expansive as Tears of the Kingdom, but it definitely shares some of the same DNA. Don’t let the cutesy toy-like art style fool you. This is a legitimate Zelda game, and not an experiment like Princess Peach: Showtime.
Here are the main takeaways. This is the first-ever game that actually stars the titular Princess Zelda, and no I’m not counting the Philips CD-i title from the 90s. Also, she’s an absolute badass summoner/mage who made me feel more powerful than Link ever did. It plays like a perfect mix between old-school Zelda (A Link to the Past was an obvious inspiration) and the more open-ended modern games like Breath of the Wild.
I spent hours upon hours trying to rig up contraptions to reach faraway sky islands in Tears of the Kingdom and, lo and behold, I did the same thing here to explore the entire map before I made a dent in the main story. There are 127 summonable echoes that combine in fascinating ways to allow for custom puzzle solves and unique methods of travel. It also has old-school dungeons, including one of my very favorites in the whole franchise. I hope we get more playable Zelda titles in the future, as the series bears her name. Also, the next Smash game had better let Hyrule’s princess embrace her inner dark mage. I want to murder that little Earthbound kid with five crows and a Lynel.
— Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter
Phoenix Springs
I’ve never encountered a game quite like Phoenix Springs. I’ve played point-and-click adventures, sci-fi mysteries and narrative games, but I’ve never seen one that sounds this luscious, looks this dramatic or plays this hypnotically. Phoenix Springs is a noir detective novel come to life but it’s also a cyberpunk vision of the future, and it’s all presented in muted, hand-drawn hues blanketed in light blue shadows. Truly, every scene of this game is gorgeous.
Phoenix Springs stars Iris Dormer, a technology reporter who’s searching for her estranged brother, Leo. Her hunt takes her from the abandoned buildings of a rundown city, to a rich suburb, and finally to Phoenix Springs, a desert oasis bathed in golden light and occupied by a handful of odd, disconnected people.
There’s nothing rushed about Phoenix Springs. Iris walks leisurely through expansive wide shots, her silhouette cutting across high grasses and cold concrete at the same unhurried pace. When she speaks, she sounds like a jaded detective lost in time, her sentences stark and powerful. Haunting choir chords and droning bass lines share screen time with pristine silence and birdsong. Phoenix Springs excels as both a piece of art and a detective game, and it’s the perfect escape for anyone who wants to slow down and get lost in the grit of a neo-noir world.
— J.C.
Still Wakes the Deep
Still Wakes the Deep is quietly one of the best horror games of 2024 — and in a year that gave us Mouthwashing, Slitterhead and the Silent Hill 2 remake, that’s saying something. Still Wakes the Deep comes from the horror masters at The Chinese Room, and it’s a stunning first-person experience that introduces violent paranormal monsters to the Beira D oil rig in the middle of the icy North Sea.
In Still Wakes the Deep, horror comes in multiple forms. The invading creatures move with thin, too-long limbs that burst from their bodies like snapping bungee cords. Large pustules and bloody ribbons grow along the corridors, emitting a sickly cosmic glow. The ocean is an unrelenting threat, wailing beneath every step. And then there’s the oil rig itself, a mazelike platform supported by slender tension legs in the middle of a raging sea, groaning and tilting as it’s ripped apart from the inside. Each of these elements is deadly; each one manifests a unique brand of anxiety.
Amid the life-threatening terror, Still Wakes the Deep manages to tell a moving story about family and regret, thanks in large part to the game’s fabulous voice acting and compelling script. This one was easy to miss amid the glut of good horror games this year, but it belongs at the very top of that list.
— J.C.
Silent Hill 2
There isn’t much to say about Silent Hill 2 and its story that hasn’t already been said a million times; it is incredibly bleak, a masterclass in psychological horror. In the 2024 remake, the story is much the same, but there’s a new intensity to the enemies and environmental elements that takes the horror to another level. Silent Hill 2 (2024) really got under my skin at times, and at others, made me jump out of said skin.
In the game, you play as the confused and grieving James Sunderland, who traveled to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife telling him she’s waiting for him. They once vacationed there as a couple, but needless to say, Silent Hill is not as he remembers it. The game presents you with both a fight for survival and mystery that needs solving, as James fights off horrifying monsters and little by little uncovers clues that point to dark events. It’s extremely compelling and genuinely scary, not to mention emotionally effective as the story eventually reveals itself. Bloober Team did a great job with the remake and, as with the original, it’s the kind of game you’ll be thinking about well after you’ve finished playing.
— C.M.
Space Marine 2
At first glance, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a simple, by-the-numbers action game in the mold of Gears of War. It’s loud, bloody, and over the top. But the more I played Space Marine 2, the more I came to appreciate how much depth and intelligence it hides just below its shiny Ceramite surface. For one, it absolutely nails the Warhammer 40K setting, both visually and in tone. It’s a game that knows its transhuman protagonists are just cogs in a brutal and repressive regime.
Then there’s the close combat system, which, once again, seems simple but rewards players who take the time to master its rhythm. Just because you’re a super soldier doesn’t mean you can simply charge into combat; instead, you need to block, parry and counter the most deadly opponents on the field. Plenty of other games have employed this rhythm, but Space Marine 2 makes its own and feel extremely satisfying. Add to that a compelling co-op mode that offers a great progression system, and you have a game that I’ve played more than any other this year.
— I.B.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remasted
I’m going to exploit a loophole to write about one of my favorite games that technically came out back in 2020, The Last of Us Part II. However, Naughty Dog released a remastered version for the PS5 in January. Yes, the core game is the same, and the graphics upgrade isn’t nearly as massive as the remake of the first Last of Us that came out in 2022. But as I said in my review of Part II Remastered, the new roguelike “No Return” mode was easily worth the $10 upgrade fee on its own.
I wasn’t going to write this up for our favorite games of the year, thinking it would be silly to go back to this particular obsession of mine yet again. However, my PlayStation 2024 wrap-up indicated that I spent a positively ridiculous 318 hours playing Part II. Yes, I went through the main campaign once this year and also finally got the platinum trophy that had eluded me on the PS4 version — but my rough guess is that I spent somewhere between 250 and 275 hours on No Return alone. Yes, that’s borderline obsessive behavior, but I think it also speaks to how good the combat system in Part II is. And getting to play these encounters with 10 different characters, each with their own traits and quirks, means there’s a ton of replay value here (if I haven’t proved that already). Add in the randomized mods that pop up (invisible enemies, healing when you land a melee hit, tripwire traps populating the arena) and you’ll never have the same run twice.
— Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor
Vendetta Forever
Fitness is one of the best selling points for VR headsets. It’s not just a static gaming experience. You can get up, jump around, squat, duck and dive your way in all sorts of different games. Meatspace Interactive may not have had fitness in mind when they designed the rapid action simulator Vendetta Forever, but it’s one of the most fun ways to work up a sweat on a VR headset. Vendetta Forever puts you in the shoes of the target of a series of minimalist assassins. Just like Superhot VR, the action ramps up the more you move, but Vendetta Forever has a unique “LO-KILL-MOTION” gimmick that makes it so addictive.
You zip between your faceless enemies as you snatch weapons out of the air like firearms, ninja stars and even pencils while contorting your body to avoid incoming fire. It’s easy to get caught up in the repeating action as you make your way through action movie staple scenes and learn from your deadly mistakes in gun run after gun run. Vendetta Forever is my favorite way to meet my daily cardio requirements.
— D.G.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/engadgets-games-of-the-year-2024-133005519.html?src=rss
Are you tired of feeling safe and happy all the time? Is your daily life overrun by feelings of security, contentment and peace? Do you want an escape from all of the oppressive niceness around you? Well, look no further — these are the games for you.
Here, we’ve collected more than a dozen of the most evocative and disturbing horror games in recent memory. These selections cover a wide range of genres and styles, but each one comes with at least a tinge of unsettling terror. So take a peek, find your game, and prepare your skeleton for some fresh air because you’re about to jump out of your skin.
We may be a bit technology-obsessed here, but the Engadget team does occasionally get around to low-tech activities, like reading. Well, some of us read on ereaders or our smartphones, but you get the point — books are great, and we read some exceptional ones this year that each deserve a shoutout. These are some of the best books we read in 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/our-favorite-books-we-read-in-2024-151514842.html?src=rss
We at Engadget are in the unique position to test out many more gadgets than we actually use on a regular basis. It just comes with the territory of reviewing the newest smartphones or testing out dozens of power banks to find the best ones. But we still have to buy things for ourselves, and there are winners and losers just like there are when we test things out for professional purposes only. And similar to when we find a new top-tier tablet or VR headset, we like to sing the praises of the tech we bought ourselves to anyone who will listen. These are the best things Engadget staffers purchased this year that will continue to get lots of use in 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-tech-we-bought-in-2024-130006482.html?src=rss
The holidays are nearly here and if you’re a bit behind on your gift shopping, you’re not alone. The holidays can truly sneak up on you, and this year that’s been more true than ever. Between wrapping things up at work before some well-deserved time off and making sure you have everything you need to host family and friends, it can be hard to find the time to go to a store to pick out presents. And when you do finally get there, you may be met with half-empty shelves. But this is where the internet comes in handy: you still have time to buy holiday gifts online.
USPS, UPS and FedEx have laid out their holiday shipping deadlines for 2024: Ship your items via the post office by December 18 to have them safely arrive before Christmas, while FedEx and UPS have deadlines of December 13 and December 20, respectively. At this point, we recommend picking up small, affordable gifts that will ship quickly from retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target so you have plenty of time to wrap them up nicely and make it look like you had everything well-planned from the start. Here are the best last-minute Christmas gifts you can get right now and still have in time before the holidays.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-12-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts-for-the-2024-holiday-season-140037775.html?src=rss
Spotify's 2024 Wrapped results arrived this week, and while the whole package seems a bit thin compared to previous years, we're still getting a kick out of seeing our listening habits laid bare. Apple Music also dropped its annual Replay, and Tidal's 2024 Rewind has landed, so non-Spotify users have some data to pore over too. For those among us who don't use any of the big streaming apps, well, it's still a nice time to reflect on personal favorites from this year.
Here are some of the Engadget team's most listened-to songs, artists and albums in 2024 (and how we feel about those picks).
Spotify Wrapped
I hate to add to the list because of all the controversy around Spotify recently, but I have to say that the layoffs at the company do seem to have impacted how accurate I found my Wrapped report to be. While I certainly have listened to a lot of Ariana Grande in 2024 (I even wrote about it for our site!), I felt that the sections on what I was listening to in August were inaccurate. According to Spotify I was vibing to Rose and Bruno Mars' APT in August, but didn't that song get released quite a bit later?
Anyway, judge me or don't judge me based on my listening — all I can say is the data feels incorrect and incomplete but also fun and inconsequential. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy Editor, Reviews
I was pretty ill this year, and I spent hours in hospital and clinic waiting rooms listening to music on Spotify. Apparently, March was my "Pink Pilates Princess Strut Pop" phase, because I mostly listened to Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande and Charli xcx. My top artist for the year, however, was Fujii Kaze, whose music gave me a lot of comfort when I needed it the most. — Mariella Moon, Contributing Reporter
RIP New Jeans — Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor
Apple Music Replay
I've had GNX on repeat since it came out, and it was one of the things that got me through our incredibly busy Black Friday coverage season. Very excited to see which of these tracks gets played live at the Super Bowl. My guess is we’ll get “tv off” (with at least one “Mustard!” shout) and “squabble up,” at the least.
Brat summer became Brat autumn, and it will continue to be a Brat winter for me. Top tracks: “Club classics,” “Sympathy is a knife,” and “365.”
Grasa is my true album of the year and it’s a must-listen for any urbano latino fans. It’s fantastic experienced as an album from start to finish, and any edit you make based on personal preference is sure to be excellent. My favorite tracks — “Legendario,” “Manhattan,” “Menina” — are still on repeat in my personal playlists and will be carried over into 2025.
While Renaissance remains my preferred album in this Beyonce cycle so far, Cowboy Carter has no skips. “Daughter,” “Spaghetti” and “Sweet Honey Buckin’” are my faves.
The Death of Slim Shady makes sense as a concept album to me and I think it succeeds as such. But “Tobey” is what really prompted me to give the entire album a listen when it came out, and I’m glad I did. “Tobey” remains a top track for me, along with “Renaissance” and “Somebody Save Me.” —Valentina Palladino, Deputy Editor, Buying Advice
Despite the fact that music streaming services push you to playlists and radio channels, I remain an Album Guy. And as usual, my top album of the year didn’t come out this year, though it’s a relatively recent release. Daughter’s Stereo Mind Game was near the top of my list last year, but this April it rocketed up my list and was an obsession for the rest of the summer. That is thanks in large part to a live studio session they released on YouTube that was the only chance I had to hear these songs performed in a somewhat live setting, as Daughter didn’t tour Stereo Mind Game at all.
And since I’m an album guy, the first four songs on the album were my second-through-fifth most played songs of 2024. The absurdly catchy “Blame Brett” by Canadian pop-rockers The Beaches was number one, from their excellent Blame My Ex album that also came out last year. I got obsessed with that album in late 2023 and it definitely carried over to the first half of 2024. The same thing happened with Tool’s 2019 opus Fear Inoculum — I saw the band in November of 2023 for the first time in 21 years, and got re-obsessed and continued playing it throughout the year.
Finally, something new from a very old favorite: David Gilmour, best known as the guitarist and co-lead songwriter of the legendary Pink Floyd, released his first solo album in nine years. He followed that with a very short tour that hit only four cities, New York City included. I was lucky enough to go see him a few weeks ago — at 78, this could easily be the last tour he ever does, but he still brings it. He’s my favorite guitar player of all time, and the last song “Scattered” on Luck and Strange is an all-time great as good as almost anything else he’s done.
Bringing up the rear is another new album from an old favorite, Pearl Jam. More than 30 years after their debut Ten, they still know how to make a damn good rock album. Both Pearl Jam and Gilmour went with producers much younger than they were, trying to find people who weren’t going to be beholden with the work they had done earlier in long and impressive careers. If you ask me, it worked out in both cases.
There are tons of other albums from much younger or less established artists I played all year long, including Bathe Alone’s I Don’t Do Humidity, Adrienne Lenker’s Bright Future, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, Medium Build’s Country, Girl in Red’s I’m Doing It Again Baby! and Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood. They’re all worth a listen — but apparently this was a year for comfort and familiarity when I put things on repeat. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor, News
Tidal Rewind
This year for me was apparently all about fixating on a handful of new songs and playing them to absolute death. And, um, Ariana Grande. I don’t have Spotify, but my Tidal year-end playlist has every single song from Eternal Sunshine at the top, and I’m slightly ashamed to say I can't argue the validity of that — I had that album on a loop for months after it came out. She’s really talented, okay?? After that my most listened-to songs were “Cry For Me” by Castle Rat, “Bloom” by Baroness (probably an all-time favorite song for me, really), “How Far Will We Take It?” by Orville Peck and Noah Cyrus, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish, “Weird World” by Allie X and “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan. I... contain multitudes...
There’s a suspicious overall lack of emo on my 2024 wrap-up though, so I’m going to take these results with a huge grain of salt. I mean, my go-to playlist is titled “rawr xD.” — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor
Personal Pick
I don't have Spotify, so any recollection of particularly sticky music for me will necessarily be imprecise and skewed by recency bias. With that said: hooooooly moly can we talk about that Cindy Lee album?? My journey with Diamond Jubilee went something like this:
-What is this?
-No really, what is this??
-Why can't I listen to anything besides this???
Its two hours of runtime play out like a secret radio station beaming some alternate version of '60s girl groups into 2024 and I absolutely fell in love with it — and that was before even realizing Pat Flegel was in Women (another extremely cool, but very different band).
Honorable mentions go to Adrianne Lenker's absolutely crushing Bright Future, which got me through recovery from a major surgery and the nervy bops on Robber Robber's Wild Guess. As to my actual most-listened songs? It's probably the stuff on my running playlist (Sheer Mag, Every Time I Die, Red Fang, 100 Gecs, IDLES, Femtanyl, Pissed Jeans etc.) — Avery Ellis, Deputy Editor, Reports
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/engadget-wrapped-the-music-we-listened-to-the-most-in-2024-143150906.html?src=rss
Whether or not you’ve heard of a white elephant gift exchange before, there’s a good chance you have the wrong idea of what it is, how it actually works and where the idea came from. According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. It was a far more devious punishment than simply having them executed. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an animal. It would inevitably lead them to financial ruin.
This story is almost certainly untrue, but it has led to a modern holiday staple: the white elephant gift exchange. Picking the right white elephant gift means walking a fine line: the goal isn’t to just buy something terrible and force someone to take it home with them. Rather, it should be just useful or amusing enough that it won’t immediately get tossed into the trash. The recipient also shouldn’t be able to just throw it in a junk drawer and forget about it. So here are a few suggestions that will not only get you a few chuckles, but will also make the recipient feel (slightly) burdened.
White elephant FAQs
What is white elephant?
A white elephant gift exchange is a party game typically played around the holidays in which people exchange funny, impractical gifts.
How does white elephant work?
A group of people each bring one wrapped gift to the white elephant gift exchange, and each gift is typically of a similar value. All gifts are then placed together and the group decides the order in which they will each claim a gift. The first person picks a white elephant gift from the pile, unwraps it and their turn ends. The following players can either decide to unwrap another gift and claim it as their own, or steal a gift from someone who has already taken a turn. The rules can vary from there, including the guidelines around how often a single item can be stolen — some say twice, max. The game ends when every person has a white elephant gift.
Why is it called white elephant?
The term “white elephant” is said to come from the legend of the King of Siam gifting white elephants to courtiers who upset him. While it seems like a lavish gift on its face, the belief is that the courtiers would be ruined by the animal’s upkeep costs.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-7-best-white-elephant-gifts-that-are-worth-stealing-150516076.html?src=rss
In What We’re Listening To, Engadget editors and writers share what music they can't get enough of lately.
Rozen - Celeste Secret Hideaway
The original Celeste soundtrack by Lena Raine is a masterpiece that’s stuck around in my head ever since I played the game for the first time back in 2018. It beautifully evokes the game’s (and player’s) emotional journey scaling the eponymous magical mountain, and I find myself popping it on pretty regularly when I need some non-distracting background music to get work done or get into a creative headspace. To my delight, Rozen — a composer and arranger known for albums inspired by Studio Ghibli and other media — released an acoustic interpretation of the Celeste soundtrack at the beginning of November, and I’m loving its cozier take on the whole thing.
“The goal with Celeste Secret Hideaway is to transform the game’s iconic melodies into warm, intimate folk and acoustic arrangements, enveloping listeners in a rich soundscape that echoes the serenity of snow-covered mountains and quiet, fire-lit cabins,” Rozen said at the time of its release.
It definitely succeeds — Celeste Secret Hideaway feels like sipping hot chocolate from the comfort of your home on a crisp winter day. It’s hard to pick a favorite because the tracks fit together so well as a complete package. This is one you can just throw on and listen to all the way through (or even on a loop, which I’ve caught myself doing), no skips. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor
Jordan Rakei - The Loop
Jordan Rakei has always had a distinctive voice, but on his fifth full-length album, The Loop, the Kiwi singer and multi-instrumentalist delivers his most consistent collection of songs yet. Across 13 tracks, there’s no filler, with a few songs even standing out as some of the best of his career.
An early highlight comes in “Freedom,” the album’s second single. Here, Rakei melds the jazz-inspired instrumentation of his earlier work with a soulful number about the importance of staying young at heart. “Freedom likes it tough/Freedom’s had enough/Freedom calls your bluff,” Rakei sings in the song’s explosive chorus, a group of talented backup singers helping add punch to the delivery.
Another standout is “Learning,” the album’s most overtly political song. “When all the people of the world have a dream/As they've always longed to live in meritocracy/And the leaders of the free, are not who they claim to be,” Rakei sings in the song’s first verse. Throughout the track, there’s a beautiful contrast between the unadorned quality of his voice and the orchestra providing the song’s melody.
In an interview with Clash Music, Rakei said he wrote “Learning” after the birth of his first child. “Bringing my son into the world, I’m conscious that there’s a lot I need to teach him, but also, how much I still have to learn…” And that’s The Loop in a nutshell; it understands the challenges of living in 2024, but it never despairs or forgets that there’s so much we can do on our own. — Igor Bonifacic, Senior Reporter
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/what-were-listening-to-celeste-secret-hideaway-and-the-loop-192517314.html?src=rss
We could all use more time away from screens of all types and sizes, and board games are a fun way to do that and bond with friends and family. Classics like Monopoly and Scrabble may be tried and true, but there are dozens of newcomers in the board game world that are worth checking out. You can find plenty of unique sets out there now, from word puzzles to whodunnits to calming playthroughs that showcase the beauty of the little things in life. Here, we’ve collected 13 of our favorite board games that are not only great to keep on hand in your own home, but that will also make solid gifts this holiday season. From games with giant monsters to those with haunted mansions, we’re sure at least one of these will be a hit with friends and family.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-board-games-to-gift-and-play-this-2024-holiday-season-125529754.html?src=rss
Trying to find the right gift for an unabashed gadget lover during the holidays can be difficult, especially if you don’t keep up with tech industry news yourself. Fortunately, you’re reading Engadget.com, a site entirely staffed by people who spend all day figuring out what new stuff is and isn’t actually good. So allow us to help. Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite gadgets and gear that just might satisfy the avid geek in your life, from premium keyboards and wireless headphones to audio samplers and karaoke mics.
For many of us, working from home is the new normal. If you know someone who spends most of their days inside their home office, the holiday season is a good opportunity to help make their day-to-day routine a little more convenient. As a group of remote workers ourselves, we’ve rounded up a few gift ideas that should make the WFH life a little more delightful.
The holidays are approaching, and you may be scrambling to figure out what you should get dad for the occasion. If you’re shopping for a father who’s into consumer tech, though, we can help. Below, we’ve consulted our many hours of gadget testing and put together a list of standout gift ideas, from VR headsets to pizza ovens to meat thermometers.
This time of year has a lot of merry and bright things to be excited about, but it can be stressful if you’re stumped on what to get your mom, dad, best friend, coworker or kids’ teacher as a holiday gift. Whether you enjoy or dread buying gifts for people, it’s safe to say we all want to give our loved ones things they will enjoy and appreciate. But there’s a lot of noise, junk and bad deals disguised as good deals to sift through as we get closer and closer to the holidays.
Allow us at Engadget to help you through it. Here, you’ll find all of our holiday gift guides collected in one place, so you can more easily find the best Christmas gifts you need this year. Are you looking for white elephant gift ideas? Are you struggling to come up with a good gift for the father figure in your life? Are you just looking for a good board game to pick up for your own family? We’ve got you covered with gift ideas for all of those scenarios and more.
The holidays are nearly here and you might be a little more behind on your shopping than you’d like to admit. We don’t blame you — between family gatherings and the final work rush before PTO kicks in, it’s hard to find the time to go to a store to pick out presents. And once you get there, you could find half-empty shelves and very few choices. But that’s why we have the internet: you still have time to buy holiday gifts online. Most of our top picks are cheap enough that they won't hurt your wallet, and small enough to ship quickly and arrive before Christmas.
According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an animal. It would inevitably lead them to financial ruin. This story is almost certainly untrue, but it has led to a modern holiday staple: the white elephant gift exchange. These gift ideas will not only get you a few chuckles, but will also make your recipient feel (slightly) burdened.
We could all use more time away from screens of all types and sizes, and board games are a fun way to do that and bond with friends and family. You can find plenty of unique sets out there now, from word puzzles to whodunnits to calming playthroughs that showcase the beauty of the little things in life. From games with giant monsters to those with haunted mansions, we’re sure at least one of our suggestions will be a hit with you and your loved ones.
There are way too many online services and subscriptions to keep track of these days, but the flip side is there’s a tool for just about everything. These are some of our favorite digital gifts and subscriptions, including time-tested music, video and gaming services as well as tools to clear your mental space and learn new skills.
The most hyped tech is often also the most expensive: flagship smartphones, ultra-powerful gaming laptops, immersive VR headsets and the like. But it would be wrong to assume that those are the only pieces of technology worth gifting. You don’t have to drain your wallet to get someone a cool gadget that will both be useful and make their lives easier. We’ve collected our favorite pieces of tech under $25 that make great gifts and help you to stick to a budget.
We wouldn’t blame you if you try to do all of your tech shopping around the holidays. That’s when you can typically get the best sales, both on relatively affordable gear and (more importantly) on big-ticket items. But it would be wrong to think that only the most expensive tech is worth gifting. Since we at Engadget test a plethora of gadgets every year, we know that there are some hidden (and not so hidden) tech gems at lower price ranges — you just have to know where to find them.
If someone on your gift list this year is a big techie, you may want to get them something from Apple, Google, Samsung or another big brand. But once you look at the price tags of their most popular devices, you may get discouraged. Thankfully, you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a tech gift for someone that has all the cachet of a brand they know and love. These are some of the best gifts you can get from Apple, Samsung, Sony and other big tech companies that come in at $100 or less.
Trying to find the right gift for an unabashed gadget lover during the holidays can be difficult, especially if you don’t keep up with tech industry news yourself. Fortunately, you’re reading Engadget.com, a site entirely staffed by people who spend all day figuring out what new stuff is and isn’t actually good. So allow us to help. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite gadgets and gear that just might satisfy the avid geek in your life.
We at Engadget spend a lot of time thinking about the best tech gifts for anyone and everyone in your life. But during that process, we often can’t help but think about the things we’d like to receive as gifts. Here, we’ve compiled a list of gadgets on our staffers’ wishlists with the hope that it may inspire you to splurge a bit on yourself this year.
There are plenty of things you could get for someone that not only shows how much you care about them, but also remind them that it’s worthwhile to take time for themselves. And while there’s nothing wrong with an aromatherapy candle, it’s more fun to go beyond the obvious choices and look at what tech products could help your loved ones feel their best. Our picks include things like styling gadgets and grooming devices, but also less techy options like a hair turban and face masks.
This year may not go down as one of the best years in gaming like 2023 did, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of great new releases. Between titles like Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, there were plenty of games to keep even the most dedicated of gamers busy in 2024. And if you’re shopping for one, especially as a non-gamer, it can be tricky to navigate what’s worth buying. We've got you covered with these recommendations.
A million new video games seem to come out every week, but for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you know someone who is way into retro gaming but don’t feel like hunting through eBay and local shops for gear to add to their collection, we’re here to help. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life, from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork.
When it comes to making a great cup at home, coffee nerds are constantly learning and love to try new things. Whether the person you’re shopping for is a newly indoctrinated pour over lover or obsessive over every brewing parameter, we’ve compiled a list of the best gear for coffee geeks that you can get this holiday season.
Forget coffee — for billions of people around the world, a freshly steeped cup of tea is the best part of waking up. But with so many varieties and methods of preparation out there, it can be difficult to find the right gift for the tea lover in your life. So to help you out, we’ve put together a list of our favorite products, from kettles to samplers.
There are few things more rewarding than making good food for your friends and family. But after a while, it’s easy to get bored with the same tried and true recipes. And what better way to inject some fun into your favorite home chef’s routine than with a brand-new kitchen gadget? To help you find the right gift for the cook in your life, we’ve put together a list of our favorite kitchen gadgets across a wide range of prices and categories.
We’re all having a bit of a budget crunch this year, but the good news is that when it’s time to bestow presents on the young ones (or young at heart), you don’t have to break the bank. Our list of our favorite tech, science and design toys is stacked with items under $100, with plenty of reuse packed in so the fun can extend far beyond the holiday season.
In Engadget’s Slack rooms, our pets are high on the list of stuff we chat about — just behind work-adjacent tech stuff, insane current events, video games and food. We’ve bought plenty of high- and low-tech stuff to keep our furry friends fed, occupied, safe and happy and we’ve put together the best of what we tried here. Perhaps you’re shopping for your own very good boy or girl, or maybe you have a dutiful pet parent on your list — either way, the gadgets gathered here will make great gifts, according to the enthusiastic tail wags (or aloof meows) of our own fur babies.
Since the dawn of humanity, we have traveled. We’ve come a long way from on-foot journeys laden with animal hide satchels. But the goal of good travel gear is the same: Get you and your necessities to a destination in the highest level of comfort available. If you know someone who is always catching a flight, rides the train to work or is bravely embarking on a cruise, some new tech may just help them out.
There's a pretty good chance you know at least one person who works remotely in some fashion. While the WFH life has its perks — nobody likes a long commute — it comes with its own set of challenges, from lacking pro-level equipment to dealing with household disturbances. If you’re looking to give a gift to someone who spends much of their time in their home office, we’ve rounded up a few techy gift ideas that should make their days a little more delightful, or at least easier to manage.
There are few things better in life than getting lost in a good book — as any book lover will tell you. We have a few heavy readers on staff at Engadget and we all have opinions on the gadgets and subscriptions we think make the experience of reading even better. We've got gift ideas for those who prefer e-reading, as well as for the print-faithful — and of course, some book recommendations, too.
Everyone needs a hobby, and chances are there’s at least one person on your holiday shopping list who fancies themselves a musician. Whether they’re a casual synth noodler, a guitar virtuoso or a singer-songwriter we’ve got recommendations covering a range of price points. Some of these even make a great gift for music lovers who have been considering making the jump to music maker.
Whether that special person on your gift list is a photographer or content creator, a camera or accessory is always highly appreciated. And with technology in areas like autofocus and video quality constantly improving, it’s a great time to own a new camera. However, it can be confusing to sort through the latest models or find the best memory cards, backpacks, tripods and more. Fortunately, we’ve done the research and selected the best cameras at a wide range of prices, along with accessories that will help your loved one get the most out of their gear.
Whether or not you understand your loved one’s desire to wake up before sunrise and get in a 5K is irrelevant when it comes to gifting. Athletes, especially runners, are pretty easy to shop for since they can never have too many of the essentials like socks, gloves, foam rollers, trackers and more. There are plenty of things you can get them that will make their runs more enjoyable, or help them recover more efficiently so they can best yesterday’s time today.
Other than a bike, helmet and a few emergency maintenance essentials, there aren’t many things a person needs to enjoy a bike ride outside. But having the right accessories can go a long way towards making the experience more fun, more safe and, ultimately, more rewarding. Our list of recommendations cover the gamut of things you can give to the cyclist in your life, from must-have safety accessories like bike lights, to more techie gadgets like bike computers.
The great outdoors can be enjoyed all year round, so we’ve compiled a list of the best gifts for the backyard lounger, patio napper or woodland hiker on your list this holiday season. We even offer help with items to improve your tailgate or next beach trip. With everything from grilling gadgets to drinkware and hammocks to splash-proof speakers, there’s something for everyone – no matter how long or how often they venture outside.
We don’t speak for all moms, but a brief and unscientific survey has confirmed one gift most moms will love across the board: Time. Unspoken for, unstructured, zero-obligation time. While we couldn’t find extra hours on sale anywhere online, we did find some gadgets and gizmos that help save time and others that make precious down time more enjoyable.
Many Dads aren’t known for being forthright about what exactly they want for the holidays. (No, “peace and quiet” is not an acceptable answer in this case.) If you’re shopping for a father who likes gadgets but you aren’t sure what to get, let us help jog your brain with these gift ideas.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-christmas-gifts-to-give-everyone-on-your-holiday-shopping-list-170018610.html?src=rss
What qualifies a video game as “depressing?” The most obvious answer is that game you simply cannot beat no matter how hard you try, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Instead, we’re looking at games that just have a pall over them, whether it’s directly from story beats or a more subtle vibe given off by the visuals, music or activities the player has to participate in.
The games on this list don’t have a lot in common on the surface — there are big-budget action thrillers, smaller independent titles and at least one visual novel / deck-building game. But they can all put you in a somber mood, if that’s what you're looking for. Next time the rain is pouring down and you’re feeling a bit of melancholy, we have options to keep you company.
We at Engadget spend a lot of time thinking about the best tech gifts for anyone and everyone in your life. But during that process, we often can’t help but think about the things we’d like to receive as gifts. We encourage everyone to treat themselves in some way while scrambling to find gifts for those they love, and it’s about time we take our own advice. Here, we’ve compiled a list of gadgets on our staffers’ wish lists with the hope that it may inspire you to splurge a bit on yourself this year.
