The Gamer Social Club at its heart is a group of gamers who just love games. Each month we choose a game as a community for us all to play and enjoy. It's a great chance for people to experience something they might not usually try.
There are 2 rules that make a game eligible. It must be available on the 3 major platforms, Pc, PlayStation and Xbox and it can't be super popular.
We played a total of 15 games as a community and ran our own Game of the Year competition.
Everyone voted their top 3 in order and points were awarded 3ponits for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd.
If you are here for the winners you will have to jump to the bottom because we love games here at The Gamer Social Club so I'm going to go through all the nominations.
The Gamer Social Club actually started in December 2023 so we included it. This time...
December was the first Game of the Month for The Gamer Social club and it was a doozy.
Immortals of Aveum
Developed by Ascendant Studios and published by Electronic Arts, Immortals of Aevum is an action/adventure game released in Aug 2023. Immortals was a breath of fresh air in the First-person shooter genre. The fast combat combining traversal and matching spells on the fly to counteract the incoming damage was extremely entertaining almost reminding me of Doom 2016 without the gore. Immortals was brilliantly written and had some well-known actors lending their likeness to aid the story. Which was a high fantasy sci fi-ish tale of saving the world.
If you didn't catch Immortals of Aevum its well worth a play.
War Hospital
2024 Started off with a resource management simulator War Hospital. Developed by Brave Lamb Studios and Published by Nacon, War Hospital is set during World War 1. You are running a British field hospital on the front lines in Belgium.
The resource you are managing is bodies. Patients come in from the battle zone with any number of injuries. Its your job to decide whether its worth spending your scares resources saving them or just letting them die. You also have to balance moral and rations. If a soldier is cured of their injury, you can send them home or back to the trenches. If you send too many home your hospital can be over run by the enemy, how ever if you are sending everyone back to the front lines it costs a lot of resources. Brave Lamb Studios did a fantastic job of keeping overwhelmed and helpless. Its lack of an auto save was my downfall several time. Loosing hours of progress to one silly mistake.
If you are into simulation games War Hospital might be for you.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
February had us testing our moral choices with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. Developed by Don't Nod and published by Focus Entertainment Banishers is an incredible tale of love, trust and ghosts.
You play as Red mac Raith and Antea Duartea lovers and ghost hunters tasked with banishing a ghost from a small town in the New English countryside. Things do not go well. How are you going to defeat this great evil? Banishers has you traveling round small towns and settlements banishing ghosts. However, its not as easy as hey get outta here!! You will have to figure out who the ghost is haunting and why. Then put together a plan to defeat the ghost. The best bit, you can banish the ghost or blame the person being haunted and execute them, sometimes the choice isn't so simple. The combat feels quite basic but you come to Banishers for the story. All the quests are very well written and I believe Russ Bain should have been in the running for best performance at the 2024 Game Awards.
Vampyr
March has us diving into some survival horror with Pieces Interactive's reboot of Alone in the Dark. Published by THQ Nordic the 2024 addition was a reimagining of the original from 1992. The game is a single player narrative driven experience where you can choose either Edward Carnby (voiced by David Harbour) or Emily Hartwood (voiced by Jodie Comer) Unfortunately the stories are almost identical having only 1 or 2 differences. I personal enjoyed Alone in the Dark, having a H.P. Lovecraft feeling to the story where you as the reader aren't entirely sure what is going on right up until the final showdown.
Scars Above
Next up was Scar Above. Released in 2023 Scar Above is a third person action-adventure game where you must combine elements on the fly to defeat some very aggressive creatures occupying the planet you crash landed on. Developed by Mad Head Games and Published by Prime Matter Scars Above has you playing as Kate Ward. A human Scientist who must use her knowledge to craft weapons and gadgets to help her survive this hostile world.
What I loved about Scars Above was you felt like a scientist first, alien killer second. You had to scan flora and fauna to discover new ways it can be used to help your fight against the planet. The world is both grim and gorgeous, with different biomes to explore. The combat is very aggressive. Having different elements assigned to your D-Pad and having to change your playstyle on the fly lead to some extremely exciting fights.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
April, we went retro. Turns out a lot of us hadn't played Ninja Theory's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Hard to believe its almost 15 years old. Taking the reins of "Monkey" (Andy Serkis), you jump, swing and smash your way through a post-apocalyptic world set 150 years after a global war. You also have a little follower Trip. The catch, Monkey has a bomb collar on attached to Trip's life force. So, you must keep her alive at any cost. Trip has a bunch of abilities that Monkey can call on to help solve puzzles and scan for landmines.
Hypercharge
May saw the release of Hypercharge. May also saw the creation of our weekly podcast and on our second episode we had Joe the founder of Digital Cybercherrys on to talk all things toys and the release of Hypercharge. A nostalgia driven 3rd person co-op shooter based around our toys coming to life and defending all that is good. We had a blast with Hypercharge, unfortunately we didn't get in as many community game nights as we would have hoped. Hypercharge is a fantastically fun game that pulls on some weird heart strings. With its release coming very soon to PlayStation now is the perfect time to get Hypercharged.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
May was packed with great releases, so we had to check out Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Developed by Surgent Studios ZAU is full of heart and soul. A young Shaman must set out in this Metroidvania to capture monsters to offer to the God of Death who promises to revive his father. In true Metroidvania style you must wall jump, double jump and air dash your way through what can only be described as a gorgeous world full of incredible colours.
Crow Country
Halloween came early in June. Survival horror Crow Country was chosen. Developed and published by SFB Games Crow Country pays homage to PlayStation 1 era horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill with its visual style and locked camera angles. Luckly the controls have been modernised and the combat feel excellent. There are 2 different modes, one with monsters and one without so you can just explore and try to solve the man puzzles strewn around the amusement park Crow Country.
Outcast 2: A New Beginning
Outcast 2 was our July game of the month. Developed by Appeal Studios, Outcast 2 commits my biggest sin in gaming that I like to call babies first day out. You play as the same character from the first game Cutter Slade except you have lost your memories and forgotten all your abilities. Outcast 2 has you completing fetch quests while you help the local Talans repel and invasion. Slade has a jetpack and upgradable weapons.
Mad Max
August took us to the post apocalyptic wastelands of Australia. Back in 2015 Avalanche Studios developed Mad Max. Mad Max was published by Warner Brothers and had the brutal hand to hand combat that we grew to love from the Batman games. What set Mad Max alight was the incredible car combat. Thundering through the wasteland tearing your way through anything that dares standing your way in true explosive Mad Max fashion.
Dredge
September was cosmic horror fishing. Dredge had some major DLC released in August adding a lot of new content with The Iron Rig. You must help the staff on the rig with various tasks. So, the Gamer Social Club grabbed their fishing boats and set out to find what was over the horizon. Dredge is developed by Black Salt Games and Published by Team17.
Callisto Protocol
October had us thrown into Black Iron Prison on the planet Callisto. Callist Protocol is a brutal survival horror tale driven by melee combat. Developed by Striking Distance Studios Callisto Protocol was released back in 2022 to mediocre reception averaging 7's or 70's. Quite a lot of the Gamer Social Club had played it before or not finished it and got a great turnout. I did a Maximum difficulty playthrough myself and had a blast. If you are a horror fan it's definitely worth a play.
Cult of the Lamb
November was cult month. Another game that a lot of us had on our backlogs was Cult of the Lamb. Released in 2022 and Developed by Massive Monster, Cult of the Lamb has you take control of the cutest little lamb. With Rouge lite elements Cult of the Lamb has you adventuring into the forest to recruit other creatures. Everything starts off cute and innocent then the indoctrination and food restrictions start. Cult of the Lamb is a fantastic little adventure for anyone who is thinking they want to start a cult.
Atlas Fallen
Our last game of the year was Atlas Fallen. Developed in 2023 by Deck13 Interactive, Atlas Fallen is an open world action-adventure game. You wield the power of Sand in the form of an Axe, Whip and Knuckledusters in a world where the Gods have abandoned humanity. Your choices help shape the environment as you explore ruins and uncover the rebellion against the oppressive regime of Thelos the games villain.
So here we are. 15 games played and a lot of amazing conversations and friendships formed over the past year.
Oh yeah this was a Game of the Year article right. I suppose you want to know who won?
Third place was Tales of Kenzera: ZAU.
Second Place was Dredge.
And by a landslide First place goes to Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.
Id just like to thank everyone in the amazing Gamer Social Club community. You all are what makes this so special.
If you are interested in joining the Gamer Social Club Game of the month Discord, I will put a link below. There is no expectation to play every game. If something interests you throw it in the chat.
I have taken up enough of you time, here's to an amazing 2024 and an even more amazing 2025.
