Another year has come and gone, another trip around our sun completed. For the video game industry, it was a strange and turbulent one — layoffs, studio closures, companies being bought and sold. But at least we got some great games out of it, right?
As always, the end of the year brings with it the inevitable flood of “Best Games of the Year” articles. I wanted to do something a little different. This isn’t just a list of my favourite games of the year, but a collection of standouts for very different reasons — some good, some frustrating, some unexpectedly personal.
Before I start listing off the games I played and want to chat about, let’s tackle a few of the obvious absences.
The first is the mighty Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, winner of every award known to mankind and several that aren’t. As a Scotsman, the extreme Frenchness of the game is already a difficult hurdle to overcome. But that flaw aside (I’m joking, obviously. Or am I?), I did fire up Expedition 33 on Game Pass and played for about an hour.
I honestly don’t know why I stopped. I was busy with other games at the time, and Expedition 33 hadn’t been sent in for review while others had, so they took priority — and I just never went back. I’m hoping to find the time in 2026.
Hades 2 is another surprising omission. Hades is one of my favourite games of all time, but I didn’t feel any hype for the sequel. I think partly because I didn’t want one. Hades felt complete. With that said, I have a sneaking suspicion that when I do finally get around to Hades 2, I’ll love it too.
Finally, I didn’t play any of the games competing for Game of the Year at The Game Awards: no Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, no Hollow Knight: Silksong, no Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Is that crazy? Probably. But this year, I found myself wandering other paths. Who knows — maybe 2026 will see me catching up.
The Outer Worlds 2
The Best Game Of 2025 That I Didn’t Review
Sometimes it’s just nice to have something to yourself, isn’t it?
Almost everything I play, I play with the intent of reviewing it and thus tend to blast through it as quickly as I can, like a cocaine-fuelled monkey with a keyboard. That was the plan with The Outer Worlds 2, but instead what actually happened is that I’ve been slowly chipping away at it, and I’m extremely grateful for that fact.
Obsidian has had a busy year, managing to shove not one, not two, but three games out the door. Avowed was decent but ultimately a little forgettable. The Outer Worlds 2, though, is a different space beast entirely. I’ve been having heaps of fun traipsing around the galaxy, collecting weapons and completing quests. In many ways, this is what I wanted Starfield to be
The flaws system is a particular highlight. It didn’t take long for me to be offered “bad knees” in exchange for better sneaking, because I spent all my time wandering around crouched. Now I’m super quiet when sneaking, but the moment I stand up my knees pop so loudly that everyone on the planet — and probably everyone in orbit — knows where I am.
Since then, I’ve also become “easily distracted”, a perk that… is that a shiny object!? OMG!
Aside from being fun mechanically, the flaws add an entertaining role-playing layer, giving extra personality to my mute adventurer.
Gunplay is solid, quests are entertaining, and the story is strong. The companions are unfortunately the weakest part of the game — a problem Avowed also suffered from. A couple are interesting, but the rest are forgettable bumpkins who just sort of exist.
I also love how many skill checks there are. Sure, they’re often arbitrary and don’t radically change outcomes, but there’s still a thrill in accessing areas or talking your way through situations purely based on how you’ve built your character. It makes me want to replay the game with a different build.
A truly great RPG. Not top-tier, but a solid four stars. Shame Microsoft buggered up the marketing for the whole thing by deciding to make it an $80 game and then backtracking like crazy. Good job.
Marvel’s Cosmic Invasion
The Best Thing Marvel Did In 2025
A side-scrolling beat ’em up, you say? From the chaps and chapettes who did TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge? With a roster of Marvel heroes, some big, some small? Sign me the hell up!
Seriously, this game is stupidly fun. I wrote my review fairly recently, so I have little else to say except that this might be my favourite game of the year. The beat ’em up gameplay is beyond satisfying, the roster is an excellent blend of big names and lesser-used characters, the co-op is a blast and grabbing the Platinum trophy felt extremely rewarding.
And just for fun, here’s who I want added as DLC: Gambit. His powerset would be perfect for this game, and after his appearance in Deadpool vs Wolverine, he’s more known than ever.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
The Best Game From 2006 That I Played In 2025
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, isn’t it? Stepping back into Cyrodiil — emerging from the sewers and into that vibrant land — felt like having nostalgia injected straight into my brain. That music. That glorious main theme.
In many ways, it’s aged with all the grace of a clown on a pogo stick. There’s no getting around it. It’s nearly two decades old, and even at launch it was considered a bit rough, a bit janky. That old Bethesda charm that has since soured, but was in full force back then.
I don’t care, though. For all of its very obvious flaws, Oblivion remains a fantastic first-person RPG filled with strong quest designs, a good levelling system, and it lets me create my own stupidly powerful spells. It was a pleasure playing through this again, and I even find myself thinking it was better than Skyrim.
But then again, they do say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it’s pretty hard fonder of Skyrim when it refuses to do the absence part and instead keeps getting re-released every five minutes.
Check out my full review here.
Mafia: The Old Country
The Best Game That Made Me Feel Things
I was deeply glad to see the return of Mafia, and even happier with how it did it: a focused experience that makes smart use of its double-A budget. It’s a strong counterargument to an industry obsessed with bloated budgets and endless development cycles.
The story is the game’s focus, a classic Mafia tale of a young man being “saved” from a terrible life by a Don and gradually becoming more and more involved in the family’s life of crime, never realising he’s traded one type of slavery for another. Throw in a forbidden romance and you’ve got the foundations for a compelling, albeit fairly straightforward, tale of loyalty, love and loss.
Simple? Yes. Somewhat predictable? Also yes. But, executed beautifully through well-written characters and stellar performances. It’s not very often a game tugs at my meagre heartstrings, and yet that’s what The Old Country did. When the credits went scooting up the screen, I put down my controller with the kind of satisfied sigh I usually reserve for finishing a good book.
In terms of gameplay, it’s nothing special. Standard shooting, knife fights that lose their oomph after the first couple, basic driving. But if you love a good story, this is the game for you.
South Of Midnight
The Best Game With All The Swagger
When it comes to its platforming and its combat, South of Midnight is about as memorable as a Pot Noodle. And not even one of the good ones, like…um. Ok, there’s no good one. But you ge the point.
But when it comes to the vibes, South of Midnight is something else entirely, a folksy supernatural tale wrapped in a gorgeous aesthetic and a striking stop-motion animation style, it oozes personality. And the music — that’s what brings it all together. Southern blues, heaps of soul.
I don’t remember every gameplay beat, but I remember the music. I remember the characters. I remember those moments where the game suddenly blooms into a musical number. Honestly, the developers should just go and make an animated film, because I’d watch the hell out of it.
Instead, all that love and creativity is wrapped around a completely mediocre action-adventure core, leaving the game struggling to find an audience. At least Game Pass gave South of Midnight a chance to exist — and for that, I’m glad.
Also, the fact that it wasn’t nominated for Best Music at The Game Awards is an absolute travesty.
The Alters
The Best Game I Really Want To Like But Can’t
The Alters is one of the cleverest games of 2025, both conceptually and in execution. It’s sci-fi premise of being stranded on a hostile planet where you have to carefully manage resources while staying ahead of the sun is already a solid setup for a management game, but when you throw in a crew of clones you end up with something very cool indeed.
The single most impressive aspect of the game is Alex Jordan , the bloke who not only plays the role of Jan Dolski, but also all the clones. Since every clone is based on different paths Jan may have taken in life, they are all different, from a logical scientist to a blue-collar miner to a therapist. All different, but all still Jan. Alex Jordan manages to capture that perfectly, giving each a distinctive voice. His work is impressive, and he should have been nominated for his performances at The Game Awards. Instead, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 got multiple nominations.
As much as I know the game is great, though, I hated playing it. At the time, I was dealing with the slow decline of my beloved dog’s health due to bone cancer, and was faced with making a lot of hard decisions over that and some other personal matters. In short, my head simply wasn’t in a place where I could engage with a game that constantly demanded hard choices under an ever-ticking clock. It made me feel stressed out and anxious at a time when I didn’t need more of either emotion being dropped into my brain chemistry.
The good news is that I want to return to The Alters someday. Maybe, given enough time and distance, the association with that period will fade enough for me to fully appreciate what the game is doing.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
The Best Game About Being A Ninja
2025 had an unusually large number of games about being a ninja, and even weirder is that three of them were all new games in old franchises. Of course, my claim is a bit bold: Shinobi might not be the best game about being a ninja because I didn’t play the other ones, but a bit of hyperbole is always fun, isn’t it? And regardless, ninja-lovers did pretty well for themselves in 2025.
Stupidity aside, Art of Vengeance is a terrific return for the series. Smooth combat, beautiful visuals, and a ninja called Joe — possibly the least ninja name imaginable. It’s one of those games that just feels good to play, letting you slip into a zen-like state as you duck, dive, dodge, and decimate your way through enemies.
Oh, and then I went and replayed it with the 8BitDo Xbox Arcade controller that I reviewed this year. Holy shit, folks, that was a hell of an experience! It already felt good, but when you throw in big clicky buttons that are designed to feel like an arcade cabinet, it becomes something else entirely.
Let’s hope this marks the return of Shinobi. We need more of this.
And you need to read my review for Art of Vengeance.
Battlefield 6
The Game That Made Me Think I’m Too Old For This Shit
What a year for Battlefield, eh? First, Call of Duty poops the bed, delivering one of the worst-reviewed games the series has seen in years, and then it brings in much lower than normal player numbers and sales. The timing was perfect for a returning Battlefield 6, which was not only a great shooter but also focused on key marketing points designed to tempt CoD players. Hey, it said, we don’t have those stupid clown colours and Rick & Morty skins, so maybe you should come hang out with the rest of us adults.
Now, back when I was but a wee nipper (I’m still wee, but now also older and more annoyed, in general) I was pretty good at Battlefield: Bad Company 2. And over the years I maintained decent multiplayer skills. But these last few years, I’ve barely ventured into the fabled lands of multiplayer, also known as the kingdom of I Fucked Your Mum Last Night. So when I stepped into Battlefield 6’s multiplayer, ready to have a good time, what actually happened was tantamount to the murder of my ego. Poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.
Look, it isn’t the game’s fault. Nope. Battlefield 6 is awesome. I’m the issue here. Every match, I was overwhelmed, trying to figure out where I was and where the enemy was. There’s so much detailed stuff on the screen these days that I find it hard to pick out the pixels of a moving enemy, let alone shoot them quickly enough.
Sure, if I put in the time I’d probably improve, but my lasting memory of Battlefield 6 is a simple one: am I getting old?
Then again, does it really matter when I’m laughing myself stupid at a teammate accidentally wedging a tank into a tiny alley and blocking an entire route? Probably not. What I really need to do is accept my mediocrity, embrace the chaos, and enjoy the spectacle.
Long live Battlefield. It’s good to have you back.
A quick wrap-up
Looking back, this feels like a year where games mattered to me less as “products” and more as experiences shaped by time, mood, and circumstance. Some hit hard. Some bounced off entirely. Some surprised me by sticking around longer than expected. And honestly? I think I prefer looking at the year this way.
Let me know if you preferred this over a standard “Best of 2025” list.
WGB 