10 Best Video Games Of 2024 You're NOT Playing

Speaking of being unlike anything else in 2024, how about a poker game that's also a roguelike? 

Chances are, you've heard of Balatro. Dropping on consoles back in February, it's become the ultimate pick up and play title. Designed entirely around using actual poker hands to generate point totals, you'll then go up against different modifiers, and even bosses, unlocking different cards, burning others, applying buffs and combining all possible configurations to get through a run.

Your mileage may vary based on whether you outright hate card games, but Balatro quickly became the "poker game for people who don't like, or even know, poker", as that's largely where I was.

With a sublimely slick presentation and even options to increase the game speed the better you get, Balatro is dopamine incarnate. No microtransactions or anything less than pure responsiveness. This is an expertly; down-to-the-last-line-of-code well made video game, purely designed to set up a series of endless challenges you have to outwit, through a lizard brain focus on "One more try before bed".

Currently on all home consoles and about to dominate the mobile space very soon, despite its "Why has no one done this before??" simple premise on the surface, Balatro understood the assignment.