No. 1 Games From 2014 To 2024

From albums, we’re looking at the best no. 1 games of the past 10 years!

There have been plenty of titles that have crossed my path during the decade that my blog has been up. Though some releases have since left my personal spotlight, the ones here definitely haven’t. Like with the last list, any year that had a tie will be narrowed down to just a single game. Most of the years that I have been doing these haven’t had a lot of game ties, so this was easier than I thought it would be. With that out of the way, here are my no. 1 games from 2014 to 2024!

2014) Diablo 3: Reaper Of Souls (Trailer)

Me & a friend of mine have been saying this for a little over a decade now, but Reaper Of Souls basically saved Diablo 3. Some gamers might not remember, but D3's launch was rather rough. Launch Day has a server crash a few hours into it, balancing was rough on higher difficulties, and of course there was the Auction House (Gold Auction House wasn’t an issue in my mind). With the release of this expansion, most of the game’s faults were practically wiped off the map. There were still a few small hiccups, but they didn’t hinder the rebirth of Diablo 3 at all, and in all that time has made the game a certified classic!

2015) Heroes Of The Storm (Trailer)

I’ve stated this a few times since 2015, but I was never a MOBA fan at all. I don’t mind beating the crap out of other players in a nice battle, but with so many bells & whistles attached to the genre (Not to mention a steep learning curve for some), it can be oddly daunting to get into. Heroes Of The Storm has been the seemingly lone exception to this rule, and sure modern-day Blizzard almost does nothing with the game aside from some patches & maintenance the past few years, but it still has a sizable fan-base almost a decade since it’s release. Taking the MOBA genre and distilling it to it’s most basic formula, HotS has an incredibly simple learning curve, thus making it easy to get into! With Microsoft now owning Activision-Blizzard, many are hoping that this title has a big revival, and given that there are still people that play it.....I hope it does.

2016) Overwatch (Trailer)

It hard to believe that Blizzard’s most original I.P. in nearly 16 years by 2016 was sacrificed at the altar’s of Bobby Kotick’s greed. Today, the game that was Overwatch is a shadow of it’s former self, what with the wonky balancing, copious amount of broken promises, and a Battle Pass system that’s somehow more predatory than the Loot Boxes it used to have. It’s a crying shame, as the original OW was fantastic! Sure, there was the issues of balancing & previously mentioned Loot Boxes, but the game was an absolute blast to play. Hell, even in the era of Overwatch 2, a few wisps of the past creep into a match here & there. Still, for creating a colorful world with equally colorful characters, it’s hard to turn your gaze away from what was.

2017) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Trailer)

RE7 still gives me the absolute creeps almost 7 years later. A massive reboot after the franchise went down a more action packed path, players had been a little worried when they were told that it was going to be first person, but those worries were thrown into a dumpster when the game came out. Bringing the series back to it’s survival horror roots, Biohazard is still chilling & horrifying over 7 years since it came out. Though the subsequent remasters & new games are absolutely scary, there’s just something about seeing biologically grown horrors in the first person perspective that really puts you on edge. As a gateway into the world of Resident Evil, however little I’ve traveled down, I’m more thank thankful for RE7 holding that door open for me.

2018) Hellgate: London (Trailer)

I may have said it in a prior list, but it was due to sheer blind nostalgia that this oft forgotten RPG got to the no. 1 spot in 2018. Hellgate: London doesn’t have the best reputation, but there was just something about it that charmed me all the way back in 2007 when it was originally released, and I was surprised that it was re-released (With multiplayer exclusive content from later additions) 6-something years ago. Funny enough, this is the no. 1 game that I’ve actually played the least, as I only have a few short hours put into this due to a weird save-prevention bug I never figured out. Even so, Hellgate is such a fascinating dumpster fire, it’s hard to not look at it a little bit.   

2019) Resident Evil 2: Remake (Trailer)

Resident Evil 7 was a blast, but the remake of Resident Evil 2 was huge! Going back to the 3rd person view, fans were treated of a wonderful reconstruction of an iconic game. Perhaps even more challenging that RE7 and the original RE2, I was definitely on edge as I explored the ruined Racoon City Police Department, not to mention the decrepit sewers & wrecked Umbrella labs. It was clear from the first few moments that massive amounts of love was put into bringing this title into the modern era, as well as a lot of respect when it comes to the Resident Evil lore. Coming in at 5 years old back in January of this year (The 25th of January to be specific), it’s a modern day classic that’s still talked about fondly.

2020) Doom: Eternal (Trailer)

Perhaps even more metal & Doom than the series’s triumphant return back in 2016, Eternal was an absolutely visceral experience! Taking everything that the previous Doom game did, turning the knob up to 10, and adding a few new bells and whistles helped Eternal become a game that was even more like Doom that what it was a few years prior. Even the lore that was added fleshed things out, as the once simplistic world has become surprisingly deep, and the implications of characters behind the scenes adds more to what’s going on. Even if you didn’t care for the lore or those that inhabit it, on gameplay alone Eternal has since become a timeless classic over the 4 years that it’s been out. If you’re in the mood for a Heavy Metal festival of demonic violence, then this is for you!

2021) Behind The Frame: The Finest Scenery (Trailer)

Out of everything that came out in 2021, and out of everything on this list (With maybe 1 exception a little later), Behind The Frame is the most peaceful game that I’ve ever played. A puzzle game centered around that of love & art, and using a visual style that’s reminiscent of Studio Ghibli, it was a great counterbalance to the disease-ridden year of 2020. Perhaps it’s biggest flaw is that subsequent playthroughs aren’t all that different from the very first, save for looking for achievements. This did go away a little when the DLC for Jack was released, but then came back by the time it was completed. Even so, Behind The Frame is a soothing and heartfelt experience that was absolutely needed when compared to what 2020 was like.

2022) Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (Trailer 1/Trailer 2)

I will eternally sing the praises of the first MTG release of 2022. I will forever cheer on the return to one of the card game’s most iconic planes, and I will forever squee over all of the cyberpunk & anime references that were put in. To be honest, the circumstances around the release of Neon Dynasty were truly perfect in my opinion: the pre-release took place at a Hibachi restaurant, the actual release happened while I was at Katsucon 2022, and while this isn’t completely related, the release of Elden Ring happened a week after. All of these circumstances made a massive impact on my nerdy self, and it still hits me over 2 years afterwards. With glimpses of the plane being revealed in March Of The Machine & it’s aftermath, I can only hope that we go back again sometime this decade.

2023) Gloomwood (Trailer)

I will forever love this game!

From the pre-alpha demo all the way back in 2020, to it’s early access release in September of 2022, to it’s current early access state here in 2024, Gloomwood has be nothing short of a genius game. In addition to being a loving tribute to the stealth classic Thief: The Dark Project, the title’s biggest strength is the studio that’s working on it. New Blood Interactive & it’s developers have been nothing short of transparent about the development of this game, showing off little changes in videos on their Youtube page, as well as the Twitter pages of some of the developers. This transparency has resulted in an early access title that feels like it’s complete.....and they’re still working on it! Hopefully by 2025 it gets fully released not just on PC, but on Switch & other consoles as well.....because everyone deserves to play this game.

2024) Botany Manor (Trailer)

2024 has been an incredibly rough year for me. Probably has been for a lot of us.

Like I talked about a few months ago, my dear friend Isabelle passed away 6 days shy of her 90th birthday, and her husband Neil died not even a month after her. Coupled with a few other things since around the end of last year, not to mention the fact that now I’m close to middle age, to say life has been a bitch is understating. However, leave it to an incredibly cozy game to bring a spark back. Leave it to a puzzle game about the growing of beautiful fictional flowers at a equally beautiful manor in the English countryside to make me feel a little more warm & fuzzy once again. Can’t say much else, other than this was fantastic!

And those were the no. 1 games from 2014 to 2024. Each of these were taken from a variety of genres, and I can only wonder what the next decade will bring us. Well, I got one more decade retrospective to cover, and it’ll be perhaps the most interesting. See you all at the end of the month!

No. 1 Albums From 2014 To 2024

10 years fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

10 years that I’ve been doing this blog. 10 years that I’ve been review anime, metal albums, conventions, and whatever else caught my fancy. 10 years that I’ve claimed my little piece of the internet, and hopefully I will claim 10 more & beyond. It’s a strange thing if you ask me: time is fleeting, but somehow what we do online can stay for quite a while. It’s weird, but there’s something oddly comforting about it at the same time.

So to celebrate this decade of me being online, I wanted to go over what all of the number 1's I’ve had over these years. The number 1's among my albums, movies, and games that is. To challenge myself somewhat, any year that had a time or such will have one of them picked out instead of any of the others so as not to clutter these up. On top of that, these 3 lists will also preview something that’s come from 2024 so far, and it may or may not change by the time December rolls around. With that out of the way, here are my no. 1 albums from 2014 to 2024. Let’s begin!

2014) Septicflesh: Titan (Song)

Over a decade by the time this list is released, I still hold the first ever Death Metal album I got into close to my heart. Septicflesh have been producing albums for a little over 30 years here in 2024, and it’s albums like Titan that keep it’s fans invested. The record is a perfect balancing act: just the right amount of symphonics, and just the right amount of Death Metal. Neither aspect overpowers the other, and the two walk a tightrope together without even remotely falling off either side. I may have physically owned the album since 2016, but I’d like to think it’s been with me for longer than that. I believe I’d said it before, and I’ll say it again, but Titan is the album you’ll want to listen to first if you want to get into the slaughterhouse that is Death Metal. Guaranteed!

2015) Faith No More: Sol Invictus (Song)

I dropped my jaw when I found out that Faith No More got back together & released a new album. It had been over a decade since the band released anything, as they split up in 1997 to pursue other things, but when they came back in 2015 it felt as if they never left us. Taking everything they learned from their time in the late 80s to 90s, they brought that all into the middle of the 2010s, and the end result is a massive nostalgia blast! For a while I’ve fallen away from it somewhat, yet I still can’t deny how hard it hit me nearly a decade ago. If any of you weren’t a child of the 90s and would like a gateway into what that decade was like, then I highly suggest that you listen to this!

2016) David Bowie: Blackstar (Song)

The stars were dimming quite a bit since Ziggy Stardust left Earth nearly a decade ago. For over 8 years, the airwaves have been a little less special with David Bowie no longer being in the musical picture, but not long before he left he managed to crank out a beast of an album! While I do think it’s perhaps a little too artistic, and there’s some ego to be felt here & there, I wouldn’t say that Blackstar is bad. Far from it: the album is perhaps at Bowie’s creative zenith. Much like Freddy Mercury on Innuendo, he is pouring our his heart & soul, and spending what little energy he had left in crafting his Magnum Opus. Though the No Plan would come out a year later, and have some great songs in it’s own right, it’s Blackstar that has a lot of punch behind it’s music. If you’d like to see the stars twinkle for only a little bit, I think this is the album to make them shine.

2017) Kreator: Gods Of Violence (Song)

In a year of political upheaval in the United states thanks to a certain somebody becoming president, it was comforting to know that one of the cornerstones of German Thrash Metal would release Gods Of Violence right at the very beginning of 2017. The album is exactly what you expect from modern-day Kreator: hard-hitting & heavy riffs, raspy & brutal vocals, and political commentary that’s in your face. In the years since Gods Of Violence was released, it seems that time is reflecting upon the album a little too well, especially here in 2024. I can only imagine what things are gonna be like by the time we get to 2027.....if we all make it to then. Speaking of reflecting.....

2018) Ministry: Amerikkkant (Song)

I will continue to defend this album. Flaws and all, I will continue to stand by putting this at no. 1 in 2018. One of the few pieces of anti-Trump media that has aged surprisingly well, one of the biggest advantages of Amerikkkant is that it actually isn’t fully anti-Trump. If anything, the former president is barely on the record at all, as Uncle Al & the gang wanted to examine the circumstances that led to the cheeto-in-chief taking power here in the United States hopefully for the only time. With Hopium For The Masses being released earlier this year (A great release in it’s own right, btw), we still have Ministry cranking out damn good music with a potent political message, but if Trump gets back into the White House, then I think that Amerikkkant might have a resurgence of sorts.

2019) Rammstein: Untitled (Song)

You might recall me heaping a lot of praise on Rammstein’s 2022 emotional colossus Zeit, and I still say it’ll take a baseball bat to the feels, but for whatever reason I love their incredible return in 2019 a little bit more. Turning 5 years old a few months ago, this album comes out of the gate hitting hard & fast, and upon each listen since then is just harder and harder. Whether it’s on this CD or live, the songs on this release are perhaps the most potent that the band has ever created. If you a longtime fan that for some reason never listened to this, or you’re a new fan that’s curious about Rammstein’s return, then you gotta seek this album out.

2020) U.D.O. - We Are One (Song)

When I reviewed this album in 2021, one of the issues I had with We Are One was that the message that Udo Dirkschneider was trying to convey on the release was perhaps a bit too cheesy & hippy-ish.....but to be perfectly honest I’ve kind of repaired that dent in the armor. Perhaps now in 2024 more than 2020, we need the message of hope, togetherness, and working with one another to make this world a better place before it’s too late. Acquiring the services of the German Military’s own marching band, the end result is the modern equivalent of We Are The World......only more metal!

2021) Mastodon: Hushed & Grim (Song)

By the time Hushed & Grim came out, I was listening to the band for a little over 4 years. Emperor Of Sand and Cold Dark Place may have been the albums that got my ass in a seat, but it was the band’s most emotional colossus that has kept me glued to said seat. It may be a bit on the long side (Nearly an hour and a half), but their 2021 release was the culmination of everything that the band was feeling. From the aftershocks of EOS, to the isolation of 2020 & 2021, Mastodon were definitely in an emotional hotbed, and the end result is perhaps their strongest outing ever in their career. If you got over an hour to spare, Hushed & Grim is a great way to spend that time!

2022) Devin Townsend: Lightwork (Song)

A perfect counterbalance to the plague-ridden chaos that was 2020 & 2021, Devin Townsend’s mental balm that was Lightwork was a much needed breath of fresh air in 2022. Though I said in my review from last year that at times it’s too soothing, at the same time the soft energy from a majority of the album was needed as we were all leaving the diseased miasma from the prior years. Devin had already captured what we were already feeling somewhat in 2021 with the dual release of The Puzzle and Snuggles, but Lightwork amplified that to 10, and continues to do so in 2024. If there was a way that HevyDevy would barge into this new decade, and with plenty of that Mad Canadian style, it was definitely with this album.

(Also, we got Powernerd coming towards the end of October, and if the title track is anything to go by, he’ll have another hit release on his hands!)

2023) Host: IX (Song)

2023 was definitely a rough year. Wasn’t it?

With all of the social & political upheaval here in the United States, not to mention the horrors going on over in the Middle East (That are still going on, btw), it’s easy to see why a lot of people were really down & out. Hell, a lot of us are still feeling that year’s aftershocks, and I don’t think that’ll stop anytime soon. Because of that serious energy, I felt that more serious albums should end 2023, and this Paradise Lost side-project was at the top of the list. Nick Holmes & Greg Mackintosh really managed to bring back the Host era of the band, but without the record company interference, as well as vastly superior recording & production technology behind it. The end result is an album that’s nostalgic in every way, yet doesn’t feel like it’s old either. If you’re able to survive going through a little bit of the black, then you’ll like what IX provides!

2024) Judas Priest: Invincible Shield (Song)

Invincible Shield marks something of a significant milestone for one of the world’s most oldest Heavy Metal bands: Judas Priest has been releasing albums for half a century. In fact, it will be exactly 50 years this month on the 6th that they’ve been putting out releases. That alone is simply incredible. On top of that, Rob Halford just recently turned 73 years old! Sure, his body (Along with the oldest band members) shows off his age nowadays, but the one thing that hasn’t lost any vigor is his voice. He can still scream, screech, bellow, and other things with his voice, which is impressive if you ask me. As for Invincible Shield, Judas Priest knock it out of the park! There is a little bit of fluctuation when it comes to the quality of certain songs, but the overall experience was just wonderful. If the group was to bow out at any points during the rest of 2024 (and beyond) for any reason, Invincible Shield is not a bad way to say goodbye.

And those were the top 10 albums from 2014 to 2024. An interesting bunch of records from classic acts across the ages, it’s a safe bet to say that there will be something for everyone on this list. Now, we transition to the realm of video games, so see you all in the middle of September for the number one games of this past decade. Until then, take care!