But we are here to celebrate the great work still being done in 2025, specifically from the subset of games I played this year. Ongoing (RPG-as-a-service) games are going to slowly increase their representation, as I've moved from very light dabbling to including them as a core part of my regular gaming experiences - they really are now what I kinda wanted out of MMOs all those years ago (back when we paid monthly just to access a lot of the higher budget always-online titles). Unlike traditional games, if you don't play them now, they will not be there forever (live service games retire content even more actively than most MMOs - often as a way of avoiding new players having access to too many "free" resources that are being handed out to players who stick with the game outside of a battlepass reward schedule). My rules are that this is an annual list so "what have you done for me recently" rules apply - if a game added significant content during the year then it can be judged based on that new content for inclusion on a best of 2025 list.
No screenshots again? The advent of amazing HDR displays and many modders doing the work to make HDR on PC actually good even for games that didn't consider it a priority means much of my screenshot archive for new games is now in HDR. Specifically in JXR format (the MS-backed HDR format that most basic consumer capture tools on Windows use) so even if the web was better at fully supporting HDR images with good auto-tonemapping for SDR screens then I'd want to probably convert them to JXL, which is certainly the leading format for web HDR images (in part due to Apple using it and MacOS being the best platform for seamless HDR content). I may go back and add screenshots (a mix of SDR and HDR, as suitable) for these years once things have stabilised and it's easy to convert between formats and get a reliable result on all browsers and all OS. I don't even have a good HDR-aware image editor that does JXR to JXL conversion right now or a Lightroom-a-like that takes JXR as "RAW" and lets me tonemap a good SDR version of it by hand (even if I was to spend the time).
##### Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
I loved the first game and they've come right back with a sequel that slightly mixes up the core gameplay of spending dice rolls along with extending the story progression from a branching set of events towards several conclusions on a single space station into a romp around an asteroid cluster with choices but less distinct end goals. The gameplay feels fresh and the different story structure avoids it feeling like a structural retread.The most important part, the writing, stays much the same. Everyone is trying to make ends meet under difficult circumstances and you must decide how much to trust everyone as you push forward, under the constant pressure of someone likely following you. There isn't actually much to say here except that this does justice to the first game and I hope that they switch things up for their next project after two very enjoyable games along a similar path.
##### Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
If you wanted to just read lavish praise of this game, you can do so anywhere because this has won all the awards at all the outlets. So let's dig into some discourse around it, specifically "AAA is dying because even when hired by Ubisoft, they couldn't make a game like this at Ubisoft". The latter part of that is true: if Ubisoft released Expedition 33, the commentary around it would not have been the universal praise we got. This exact game, as part of Ubisoft's slate, would have provided divided reviews where every technical flaw was expanded out to a full paragraph of text and the lack of budget listed as why this game was only "ok" despite enjoyable themes and RPG mechanics. "Two second hitch every time it prepares to go into combat - one star subtracted."Because we do not grade independent projects with $5-20m budgets the same way as $100m projects. And we assume that all major projects pushed by big publishers (not called Nintendo, and even they are starting to get noted for spending $10m on a Pokemon that looks worse than a mid--budget PS3 game but will collect over $1bn in revenue) are aiming for AAA (ie high budget) production values. You can't have somewhat doll-like skin shaders (unless going for a highly stylised extreme of that) and variable animation quality (at points looking like marionettes being lifted by strings) if you're going for emotional scenes in a game that players are comparing to Naughty Dog titles - especially with online sharing of clips by professional jokers (and streamers) who are looking for the next viral meme. You do actually have to make the jumping look good and a toggle for run can't disable every time you use a rope or boost pad. Invisible walls and iffy rules for what you can't jump off or clamber on are also starting to be "one star subtracted". But not if you're a plucky indie with a smaller publisher behind you. Until the sequel (eg Plague Tale Requiem; GreedFall 2) and there you are expected to have rapidly boosted polish and production values. Use any store assets and get noticed and the most uncharitable will start calling your expertly crafted game an "asset flip".
All of which is not to detract from what an enjoyable game this is. The awards are deserved, even if I'm not sure the new players it drives towards this (players who only play 2-3 massive budget bombastic games from the likes of Sony per year normally) will quite understand why this game doesn't look quite as good as they're expecting. We have definitely gone past "good enough" so what we have here is smart use of a more limited budget. And the RPG formula is perfectly deployed, along with every plot twist you can guess is coming (wow, one starting character sure doesn't have any additional perks on their weapons that unlock as they level past the first act and their skill tree sure is much smaller than the others; I wonder what happens next?) and even a few swerves that are a bit less easy to see coming. It's all very French and tied together with a turn-based combat system that treats every character as a completely new set of mechanics to refine. It's also not an 100 hour epic, so you can actually finish it while not dedicating a month of play time to it.
##### Wuthering Waves
Reviewer brain (a condition that unfortunately never goes away but is less debilitating than developer brain when it comes to enjoying video games) reminds me that while a free bad game is still bad, an expensive good game does have a problem when it comes to ease of recommendation - is a game really so essential to play that no price tag is too much? With the massive influx of free to play games in the last one to two decades, we have a new standard of good free games that you can pay for but also can review based on not doing that. Once upon a time you had punishing bag/equipment limits if you didn't pay for a F2P title but now it's more a case of being required to play to earn the currency for progression that you could also pay real money for (see also: to buy the battlepass, you can earn credits from completing the last battlepass). No big issue if the act of play is engaging and provides a diverse set of goals (RPGs love their mini-games).While, if a $70 game or with annual $50 paid expansions, it would be easy to point at a few elements of lower production values during some cut-scenes and place Wuthering Waves within the mid-tier of premium anime RPGs, the facts are that you do not have to pay anything to play all of this game. As you play it, you will slowly unlock a sizeable roster, although it's unlikely you can unlock all characters just through play (as they add a new character with new combat mechanics and team interactions twice per patch cycle - with those patches, full of new stories and events, arriving every 6 weeks). And as a game that costs you only time, the rich narrative, stellar visuals (2025 added a full ray-traced update to the engine on PC), and complex but understandable combat loops really are some of the most fun I've had in 2025.
WuWa in 2024 launched with a good (party of three, switching on-field character) combat system but a story that was only just getting going by the patched updates at the end of the year (into the Burning Shores and major revelations about your place in the world hinted at during the initial campaign). Enough to give it a mention in my list but not enough to take a top spot. 2025 brought a massive expansion with a pair of regions referencing ancient Italy (Roman lore) and a more modern take (with mafia families vying with an all-powerful church). Some of the one-off areas were an easy match for anything in Expedition 33 this year and the character stories weaved an epic tale with so much heart and a real refinement to the sparks of writing seen last year. Then, before the year was quite out, they dropped the 3.0 patch and brought us into a third massive expansive region and a whole new storyline that has only just kicked off. I can't wait to experience more in 2026.
##### Atomfall
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Cumbria (that's not Yorkshire, but close). Unfortunately we've still got the same engine tech that Rebellion have been incrementally improving for the Sniper Elite series for years and the aliasing is still as distracting as it is with their longer-lived franchises. Very much a game that is great despite their tech and something I really really hope they get on top of in future iterations. Is a nice modern ML-based TAAU really so far away from being possible (adding motion vectors can't be that hard)?The really smart move here (unlike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, which does branching but also is just a lot longer than the previous games in that series as it seemed to move slightly closer to a modern Fallout) is to make several paths through the game world based on who you want to draw alliances with. Are you going to walk into a military base because you've got the paperwork or is this location one of hostile infiltration? You can get to any one ending in about 10 hours, and with a bit of tactical saving to avoid redoing any common routes between paths, you can see it all in well under 25 (if you're snappy around the combat).
While the game is broadly closer to a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or even Fallout, the vibes are far more Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, being that very British disaster story. Small minds focusing on petty disagreements in the middle of something far far bigger but which gives you some basic character studies in your typical Brits. Keep calm and carry on. I might also reference Citizen Sleeper 1 for the similar choices in how to lay out several branking end-points that operate upon a common landscape but slowly push you towards more distinct areas of focus. Although here the scope is a lot bigger as the vistas are painted in 3D rather than with text and limited art. There is also quite a lot in Atomfall you simply don't have to find, so exploration is well rewarded (even if sometimes you're just finding an area another ending will use more crucially at some later point).
This has extremely solid gameplay foundations for a sequel to be built on (maybe we could get some big updates to the renderer too), although I'm not sure a direct narrative sequel plays so maybe a mechanical successor in a new setting. This is perfect for people who have said these open(ish) games are too long, by providing several paths you can travel down without wasting your time.
##### Reverse: 1999
Another RPG-as-a-service game that has been running for a while, although I only started playing this one during the Assassin's Creed crossover event in the summer. Time started jumping backwards in 1999 and you, an arcanist immune to the effects, are trying to work out what's going on while also navigating the politics of arcanist rebels vs the human-dominant Foundation (who found you and raised you, although not without some horrific experiences). It's somewhat X-Men (when you consider the factions) but also a lot that makes it something true only to itself. With a great 2D style and some simple card mechanics to the turn-based combat, this is more than anything else a game about reading some intricately written dialogue and enjoying the voice work that is included with all the main story content (how I wish they'd also add voices for the side stories, although that would be quite a lot more work and downloads as the game uses the modern standard of voice tracks for English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean).The ongoing patching keeps adding new and exciting stories (with a lot of dark themes and just enough sunlight to keep you reading) with various new chapters, seasonal events, and occasional new gameplay modes. While the character additions round out various teams designed around different meta builds - in such a way that I've found it easy to pick a few styles I liked and build around that for the various team sizes and multi-team challenges. The combat isn't the main focus here but it's sticky enough to make building a team and working out the synergies a fun little challenge. It also taught me that the "inventory Tetris" of RE4 etc is being used to build stats for characters (pick your pieces that give various bonuses and try to make them fit into a limited square you can upgrade with size extensions) and seems to have possibly started with Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days' Panel System.
##### Lumines Arise
It's Lumines, the best games on the PSP, but done up with the stylings of Tetris Effect and brand new stages full of new music and visuals. If you know this is your game, you don't need me to tell you.### Sir not appearing on my list
Avowed - Until December, this was floating in the list above. As a big fan of Pillars of Eternity and mid-sized fan of the sequel, this expansion of the setting into a fully 3D RPG sounded like it had every chance to be a slam-dunk. But it never quite took me back to where the writing for the original game has sat and where the best part of the sequel returned me to. It feels like the series is almost trying to escape the setting they laid down originally, or maybe feels like it needs a bit of a tonal shift to break out to the larger audience that games like Skyrim can attract? For whatever reason, I will recommend this but I can't quite push it up over the line onto the list above.Ball x Pit and CloverPit - These are not really my kind of game (to lose more than a few hours into and then walk away), although I know others love them. I actually find I am totally satiated by when the gameplay mechanics of these games appear as short mini-games in big RPGs.
Blue Prince - This game helped deepen my love for Outer Wilds. By the time I'd unlocked most of the base game, finished the chess board puzzle, and done stuff up to the underground train station, I fully appreciated the genius of the spaceship computer in Outer Wilds. It is helpful to be told if there is more stuff to find if you poke at something but it's even more important to be told when you've found everything and to stop. Truly, what soured me on Blue Prince was how much stuff I kinda knew was waiting for me (maybe) but the RNG never gave me an easy path to it. When I stopped playing and looked up a few things, I was generally on the right track on the strands I had left, but completing them seemed like a chore. And I'd already lost the most fun thing in many of these games: doing a "blind" playthrough the first time and letting just the in-game resources guide you forward. But when you're frustrated enough to put a game down forever, you might as well start looking a few things up. Oh, and typing in safe codes for the 20th time because there's a gem inside you want for your run but can't remember what the number is? (Games should know you know the code, not expect you to write it down on a note outside the game when you have to repeatedly solve the same puzzle over and over.)
Hollow Knight: Silksong - When people started talking about over 100 hours to complete a Metroidvania, I realised I'm not going to keep playing this. It's the massive hit sequel to a huge seller (15m of the first game) in a genre I've always rather enjoyed (in 2D or the more recent 3D) and will possibly define the future of the genre for many. But I just don't love how the combat feels in either game in this series and I don't think this genre is strongest when defined by combat.
Keeper - Again, this really should be in my wheelhouse and yet I find myself looking at it and asking what others see that I'm missing. I actually don't love the graphics (technical) even as I enjoy them (artistic) and that disconnect is slightly annoying.
South of Midnight - I just couldn't get into the decimated animation for an action game. Also this really sat in my "it takes a bit more to wow me" zone that keeps me engaged but I look back and can't really point at anything I found outstanding. Another pass at the story dialogue might have pushed it over the edge. As with this studio's previous game, We Happy Few, I don't think it's quite showing the development from the promising seed that was Contrast.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 - You can never go back and apparently that's true for arcade skateboarding games. It's everything I remember from 3 and a reworked 4 that reformats it back to the classic two minute run format and a soundtrack that refreshes the classics while keeping the tone. And I played through the maps enough to remember the originals and unlock various parts then never thought about it again for the rest of the year.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby - I think the way they do the run-based stats locking in this RPG-as-a-service is actually really bad, forcing campaign runs even when you're not getting any new events turning up (just to "stamp" your new card stats onto a horse for use in the other modes, with that campaign run being hugely about the RNG). On top of some of the worst gacha rates (pity at 200 pulls) and in-game economy (unless they choose to give out a lot of free pulls in the mail, you cannot develop your account without paying, rather a lot) I've encountered while sampling the gacha landscape (to be fair, many games are exactly as bad as this; I hate them all for this). The thing is, I love somewhat similar systems in other run-based games that don't expect you to spend so much time per week doing those runs (for possibly no benefit depending on how the RNG evolves). I guess this is a mechanic you have to tune very carefully so that players feel like there's value to up to an hour spent doing a campaign run as both a fun activity in itself and with a reasonable chance of attaining the results they want at the end of the run and through active choices they made during the run to shape it (not just pure RNG or requiring external resources to understand what the choices mean for your stats development).
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - I found a 2019 receipt for a preorder for this, long before it changed developer (preorders were all cancelled at some point). Considering what is possible today from the original's structure and some deft writing, it seemed like you could make something really special with this sequel. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what happened here, after an extremely troubled development (and jettisoning of staff and scripts that sounded promising).
### And also…
I know you called this a 1.0 release (but I'm going to look at them in 2026 after patches dry up) - Europa Universalis V (far from the first Paradox game to be hard to even know if it's working properly upon release, due to the depth of the simulation but also some weird outcomes when playing through this chunk of history); Monster Hunter Wilds (yikes, especially on PC); Sid Meier's Civilization VII (did I say 2026? I meant 2029 when all the expansions are out and you're selling a bundle pack); The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (I am actually ready to replay this, if they make it run well on top of looking fresh); The Outer Worlds 2 (this really doesn't seem to have landed with the same polish as Avowed, which itself was slightly less than ideal).The PS5 is actually getting more expensive as it gets older - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei (both games I liked the previous entry for, when they released on PC).
$500 for a portable with a bad screen and Ampere SoC worse than my (productivity) laptop while Nintendo send Pinkertons after emulation reverse engineers [can't see me picking this up unless I need one for work reasons] - Donkey Kong Bananza (I'm also going to say this has a high chance of getting jeers over cheers, as I'm extremely picky with 3D platformers); Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (as I said in my review of TotK, this is actually the more interesting story, even if a musou game is unlikely to really dig into it how I'd want); and Metroid Prime 4 (although people who generally agree with me on ranking the previous three titles say this one is an easy skip).
Not enough hours in the day (will try to finish off in 2026) - Anno 117: Pax Romana (it may not say great things that I forgot this game entirely until reminded of it at the start of 2026 but Anno 1800 ended up a pretty solid return to form for the series so maybe I fall in love once I've played more of this); Assassin's Creed: Shadows (seems like maybe the best of the new massive world AC games, and I liked Origins and Odyssey a lot); Doom: the Dark Ages (after not loving Eternal, this looked to be back to more of the modern Doom I wanted, and then I got busy playing other things); Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivaluce Chronicles (not prioritising what is an enhanced replay); Lost Records: Bloom and Rage (not entirely sure this had a chance for the top list even if I did finish it, but also I can't say it's impossible at where I left off); Ninja Gaiden 4 (seems fun and flashy, although I have traditionally failed to complete previous games in this series); Routine (a game we've been waiting for since 2013 but somehow I only got a couple of hours into during December); The Alters (base building and resource gathering with me, myself, and I); Where Winds Meet (this game really blew up on release and I was undecided if it should go on this list on the next one).
Not enough game there yet (but maybe 2026 will be their year): Ash Echoes (2024 title but I'm just starting it at the end of 2025 and it looks to be adding regular new content); Chaos Zero Nightmare (only just released, although they appear to be going in a concerning direction compared to the interesting horror direction of their pre-release trailers); Duet Night Abyss (simply not enough here yet to say if this has much potential to realise); Honkai: Star Rail (2025's story didn't grab me but they've got a new chance in a new region in 2026 to wow me); Morimens (also from 2024, I really haven't done more than play the tutorial of this so far); Resonance Solstice (my hopes are not that high but it's been fun seeing a card combat game mixed with train deliveries); Zenless Zone Zero (didn't quite retain that juice that pushed it onto my top list last year but if they actually progress the main story a bit more, it could easily move back up the list in 2026).
Did not even start (I may hold out hope for 2026 but might be steered by some good sales to pick which to start) - Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land; Cronos: The New Dawn; Deliver At All Costs; Despelote; Dispatch; Dying Light: The Beast; Hades II; Kaizen: A Factory Story; Kingdom Come: Deliverance II; Lies of P: Overture; Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii; Little Nightmares III; Mafia: The Old Country; Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater; No, I'm Not a Human; RoadCraft; Shinobi: Art of Vengeance; Silent Hill f; Skate Story; The First Berserker: Khazan; The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy; Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter; Two Point Museum.
