Hello! I’m Meredith Hall, and foolishly each year now, Gameshub invites me back to share my unhinged opinions on video games, where I write way too much because I can’t help myself. I’ve been asked to note five games from last year that made it onto my ‘hell yeah’ list I keep in my head at all times, so here we go!
Meredith Hall’s favourite picks from 2024
Balatro
I have known for a long time that I know nothing about poker, so when Balatro hit the scene and friends talked about losing hours to it, I thought, “ha, I am immune! I don’t know or care about poker! Blackjack’s my game baby!” (Note: I have never won more than ten dollars on blackjack.)
I picked it up thanks to the consistent pressure from aforementioned friends, and immediately fell down the most ‘number go up’ rabbithole I’ve ever experienced. Balatro’s ability to melt time itself is unparalleled. It’s somehow the perfect casual game that is so unbelievably sweaty, and nails every element – it’s juicy, sharp, fast-paced yet relaxed, comprehensive yet easy to pick up and play.
It’s my go to on every flight now that it’s on mobile. There are Jokers that I think of fondly even now, writing this. It appeals to my sick desire for foil cards (more on that later) even when they are not valuable to my strategy. Those aforementioned strategies are senseless and often don’t work at all, but I never walk away having had a bad time, even if I lose in the first hand.
The real problem with this is I now truly believe that maybe I could win at poker. I do not think I’ve learned anything about actual poker. I am far more likely to sit down to play and ask where the tarot cards are before flipping the table when told I can’t use them, but goddamn it I’ll have a good time sulking in the corner on my phone playing Balatro.
Pokemon TCGP
I don’t consider myself huge on collectible card games. I’ve dabbled in both digital and physical, spending time in Hearthstone and Lorcana, but usually for short, sporadic periods. I am, however, huge on booster packs.
I love opening packs of cards. I love the smell of a freshly cracked pack (packheads, you get me!!!!) I love the hope of a stack of cards. I love seeing a foil edge peek out against the cards in your hand. I love procrastinating sorting cards into folders. I have multiple fully fleshed out Animal Crossing Amiibo books. I have six going on seven folders of Lorcana cards, because if you ask me if I want to split a box, the answer is going to be yes. This is not responsible or reasonable, but it is true. They fill my house and drain my wallet, and I’ll play maybe three games a year – usually a draft.
I’m also a huge Pokemon fan. I’ve played almost every game and even attempted to play the trading card game, both as a kid physically and digitally, but it’s never really grabbed me – mostly because I cannot stand the energy system and energy cards. The Pokemon TCGP obliterates this concern. I’ve played more games of Pokemon vs both AI and other players than ever before. The stakes feel low, and fun, and there’s a lot of what feels like luck to the match-ups that remove the pressure of feeling like you’re going to be thrashed because you just suck and haven’t gamed the meta.
The audience is more casual. There’s gorgeous card art. I don’t need to sort anything – it sorts for me as I sit back and bathe in my good (or usually terrible) pulls. I haven’t spent a cent* and I can’t wait to start bartering real coffees for trades with both family and friends. That moment when I slice a pack and see the shimmer of sparkles is genuinely equivalent to cracking an ice cold drink after a long day to me. It’s a sickness and I don’t want to get better, because I’m probably saving more money than ever before.
*About three days after I wrote this, I spent a moderate number of cents on the expansion, and I regret nothing. It’s still cheaper than Lorcana.
Thank Goodness You’re Here
I love having a weird time and I especially love bullying my British friends. Thank Goodness You’re Here allowed me to enjoy both. It’s visually electric, brilliantly voice acted, and heralds the vibes that I’ve loved my entire life of Monty Python, Tim Robinson, slightly surreal and extremely ridiculous comedic energy. I laughed out loud multiple times. It’s short and sweet and more than once it feels like you’re watching a particularly fun cartoon, especially in the cutscenes.
More than once it reminded me of my own hometown – the characters that exist in all their weirdness, the specific things you’d want to complain about but only YOU are allowed to complain about, the strange urban legends. It conjured similar feelings to Untitled Goose Game in its cheeky, good-natured attitude – the way it pokes fun is loving, celebratory, all-in-good-fun.
I loved the perspective changes when entering stores, the idle animations, the myriad of secret moments and items. It was a fun romp that I loved to play and finish in an afternoon – a palate cleanser. Play it with a friend or partner over the holiday season and have a good old fashioned giggle together – you deserve it.
Read: Thank Goodness You’re Here review: Thank goodness for video games
Fields of Mistria
I am a big fan of the farming sim. I have around 500 hours in Stardew Valley across platforms, but it takes a lot for me to pick up another game in the genre. Coral Island came close (and was another game I thoroughly enjoyed this year) but I always end up falling off, the games unable to scratch the same itch of progression and growth.
I tend to avoid early access titles. My backlog is already so unbelievably long that the idea of picking up a game still being developed over one that’s fully formed and been waiting for months seems unfair. I had seen so many people talking about Fields of Mistria as worth it, even in Early Access, that I decided to pick it up.
The 90’s anime-esque aesthetic is stunning, the mechanics have huge quality of life changes (you can jump! You can swim!) that makes such a difference. The developers clearly are adoring lovers of the genre and every bugbear they have matches mine. I have been gripped by the same ‘just one more turn’ of it all that Stardew had on me. I maxed out on the early access content and have now taken a break until a few more updates hit so that I can once again sink another 30 hours without even blinking.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Many people recoil in horror when I tell them I’ve never played a Dragon Age game. This year, I decided it’d be an interesting experiment to play a game in a beloved series that I had no context for or on, beyond the little pieces I’d absorbed by osmosis over time. I spent about 70 hours in DA: The Veilguard and had a great time.
I played my Rook as a Elven Veil Jumper, but didn’t realise until far later that most Dalish Elves would usually have some kind of face tattoo. I had to build storytelling around things I hadn’t understood as I discovered them in order to match the broader lore.
Overall, there were things I liked and things I didn’t (Give me 100 more hours of Lucanis romance content!), but nothing was funnier than when someone would turn up that I knew was a big deal in the series – the music swells, the camera angle shifts, I can almost hear the gasps – and I’m sitting there with the controller like, “hello there, I guess?”
I love a fantasy world, and playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard motivated me to go back and play through from the beginning. Learning the lore in reverse the way I did with Dragon Age is one of the strangest and most fascinating games experiences I’ve had. I’ve now sunk another 70 hours into Origins including DLC, and am about 20 into Dragon Age 2, and looking forward to playing through Inquisition.
My understanding of each character is so much deeper, the world state as I understand it is shifting, and I can’t wait to get back to Veilguard and play a second time with a world and wealth of knowledge I didn’t have before. I still find myself going “who?” and “what?” when it comes to the lore, but I feel like I could hold my own now in Veilguard instead of being the one Dalish Elf Veil Jumper who didn’t have a face tattoo because she literally didn’t know that was a thing.
