Topic: Game of the Year 2025

@Elfuggingjefe I'm not great at the game either, but I'm still enjoying it for the majority.

You might be doing this already, but play the objective and use whatever your class specialises in. For example Engineer repair those vehicles, Support revive your team mates and refill their ammo/health.

I've racked up the most points when defending an objective, so killing enemies and stuff in the zone instead of on the outskirts.

My game of the year is MS flight sim 2024, probably.

My GOTY this year is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and it's honestly not even close. What an incredible and emotional experience that was from a storytelling and world building perspective. The combat was fantastic as well but the world building and the OST were exceptional.

I think the only game that may come close will be Ghost of Yotei but considering I'm still quite early and have spent a lot of time gambling playing zeni hajiki, I'll hold off on my judgement until I finish the game.

@Elfuggingjefe Ah yes that should improve things, removing the m + k players.

If our time zones ever collide, feel free to join me! Playing with mates and like minded people elevates the experience so much.

@Elfuggingjefe Yeah I think we are! I will add you in Battlefield too.

That has generally been my experience to with the game to.

I genuinely think mine is Blue Prince. I loved it myself but watching my mum play it, knowing some of the secrets, I can fully appreciate how organically she’s discovering things. Just an incredibly impressive, atmospheric, unique game. It’ll probably change once I play Silksong and Hades II.

For me so far, and perhaps an obvious one, its definitely E33.

A complete surprise to see this AA game get such a hold on me.... didn't see it coming at all, and just think its a really immaculate 'full package' that puts a pretty solid unique spin on turn based combat. The VA work is great, and the story was/is pretty decent as well - with a satisfying ending also. The game lingered in my brain long since completion, and I'm excited for what comes next from Sandfall.

I honestly though Silksong would overtake E33, but having just hit 100% completion and beat final Act3 boss I can genuinely say I actually spent more of my playtime disliking the game vs actually enjoying it. Some of the boss battles were great highlights, but I found the majority of the game just so.... oppressively difficult? There were so many occasions that the game felt insurmountable, I nearly deleted it on more than 1 occasion! The runbacks to bosses, coupled with the bizarre currency/economy system, were huge thorns in my side. I'm no stranger to difficult games, but Team Cherry really cranked this one up to 11 from the start. Felt I was playing NG+3 from the opening minutes!
(nb. side-bar, aside from not really enjoying the game I genuinely respect TC for making 'the game they wanted to make' and not compromising the experience they felt they wanted to curate. I love as well how they didn't instigate pre-release downloads, and 'crashing' the various e-store platforms was just incredible... rare to see things like that in gaming industry today! Pricepoint was beyond generous also, they could have charged double and I don't think people would have batted an eyelid.)

Other games released this year I've enjoyed -
Shinobi (real surprise from Sega, awesome) /
Ninja Gaiden Ragebound (good to see Game Kitchen branch out a bit, but I would have preferred Blasphemous 3) /
Hades 2 (I played a ton of EA last year, otherwise I think this would be my GOTY contender) /
Absolum (what a surprise from the SoR devs, hugely addicting rogue-like) /
FF Tactics (only in opening stages, great remaster so far)

In terms of game before end of year, I have already ordered the new Simon Sorcerer (love a good PnC game) and I'll grab Metroid Prime 4 if the reviews are good. I loved Dread, but generally bounced off the Prime1 remaster

@CJD87 Wow, my feelings on Hollow Knight: Silksong are pretty much identical to yours, though I’ve already resigned to the fact that I will almost certainly never finish it. It’s no doubt an incredible game but you’ve summed up my internal struggle with it very well here!

For the real game awards I can't imagine Expedition 33 not winning. It reviewed well, the general public loved it, it's a great story in that a small team made it... it's just got winner written all over it.

For the my personal game awards Expedition 33 is winning too. I loved Death Stranding 2. But Expedition 33 is a tough one to say no to.

Also shout out to Pirate Majima. Pirates and Yakuza is my interests aligned perfectly and I had a great time with it.

@Metonymy someone on reddit coined it pretty nicely on SS - "the greatest game I have ever hated playing" lol.

This is probably the first time ever that I would argue for a game having an 'easier' mode.... perhaps just having a 'normal' mode (1 mask of damage instead of 2?) and then 'hardcore' mode (which is the SS experience currently)

Its just so relentlessly oppressive. I only beat it out of spite, to prove to myself I could do it. Screw the speed run achievements or Steel Soul though, I'm very pleased to have got 100% and finished Act3.

Many people I know uninstalled it around act 2, which was a huge low point for me.

I played quite some 2025 games, but I also missed out on some games I just know I will really love, like Death Stranding 2 and Bananza. Some of my highlights here:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Most of my favorite games of all time are JRPGs. So obviously I had to play this one. It does a few things different from most JRPGs that are extremely cool, most of them story related, so I won't spoil it. It's nice to play a unique twist on a familiar formula. I like most other things in this game too, from music to gameplay, but I also played FF7 Rebirth last year. Compared to that game, this game just never really hit the highs a JRPG can reach. Like how my party never really felt like my friends, or how I never felt like I visited interesting locations. It was still a really good game and I'll play anything this studio makes next. And of course I was touched by its story. 8/10

The Blue Prince
I had a real nice addiction to this game for a while. It has some shortcomings for me. I think the marriage between having to grind this game and it being a puzzle game is somewhat awkward. In a puzzle game I want to win, because I figured it out. But in The Blue Prince when you figure something out, you might have to grind for a long while to solve said puzzle. As you get farther in the game, this might get worse. But on the other hand, a roguelike puzzle is something wholly unique and never done before. I had a lot of fun losing myself in this game. I remember playing Skyrim 14 years ago, and what I loved about the game as much as playing it, was that I was thinking about enhancing my build or what I would do next while not playing the game. The Blue Prince gave me that feeling in a way so few games do, especially as you get older. 9/10

Hades 2
This game is still very much Hades. It's not going to win any prizes for innovation, like The Blue Prince or Clair Obscur. However, the first Hades was a perfect game. And somehow this game improves on that game in every way. There is so much great stuff here: amazing characterizations of Greek mythology, the gameplay is more fun than ever, there is way, way more content than before, while the whole game continues to be so elegant. When I play, I can't stop. There are so many challenges in this game, and I want to do them all. I hate to say it, because in many ways this is just a very safe sequel, but it's also the best game of the year. 10/10

(Played more 2025 games than these three, but these three are so far ahead of the competition. It's been a great year for games nonetheless!)

@CJD87 Yeah the tough part for me, as far as analysis goes, is that the near insurmountable difficulty is clearly so baked into the design philosophy from the ground up on this project that it’s impossible for me to see it as a flaw. That said, I’m at a point late in Act 2 where every direction I can go just feels like such a mountain to climb. I’ll continue to chip away at it over then next few years 😄

My GoTY so far up to this point is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It was such a memorable experience, and one I think about regularly. I also listen to the soundtrack at least once a week. It showed me that my favorite genre, RPGs, particularly turn based, still have a ton of offer.

The only other game that is in equal footing and could be my GoTY depending on my mood is Hollow Knight: Silksong. I never enjoyed the first game, and I’m not the biggest fan of Metroidvania’s, but Silksong completely enamored me for 80 hours, with two full playthroughs and one of them being a 100% completion.

My other contenders in no particular order are Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Ghost of Yotei, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, and a*Robocop Unfinished Business*.

All of these games I’ve got the platinum for aside from Silksong, but that’s because I played it on my Switch 2. When I go for the platinum I find the game to be a cut above the rest.

I've only actually played and completed 1 game (Technically 3) from 2025.

Tohou Artificial Dream in Arcadia was ported to PS5 earlier in the year but released on PC like a good 2/3 years ago so I don't think that counts.

Deltarune became purchasable this year but is still incomplete (With at least 3 more chapters) to it's episodic nature so... That doesn't really count either.

So... Digimon Story: Time Stranger kinda wins by default at the moment (Though Silent Hill F will probably beat it hands down once I finally finish it)

I haven't played Expedition 33 and have no plans to any time soon. It's been glazed SO much that I just know I'm gonna go in and find faults with it (Same as I did with OG FF7, Neir Automata, Persona 5 etc) so I'm not going to touch it anytime soon.

The only other game that I've played that's actually come out this year is Silksong and... Like @CJD87 and @Metonymy (Welcome back by the way Jim-Jam) is that it's frustratingly difficult.

In fact Silksong is one of the most frustrating games I've ever played and the only game in all the years I've been gaming that I've quit so early into playing it.

I loved Hollow Knight. It was actually my first Metroidvania and I adored it. I didn't do the pantheons or the path of pain but I did pretty much everything else otherwise.

If I could I would be using pretty much every expletive under the sun that I can in regards to Silksong.

I'm NEVER touching a Team Cherry game again.

@HallowMoonshadow Thanks! Yeah, difficulty is somewhat subjective but it must mean something when, after a lifetime of playing games, I can confidently say that Silksong is overall the hardest game I’ve ever played. It’s often punishing and downright demoralizing. Unfortunately (depending on how you want to look at it I guess), I really think that’s the whole point of it.

Seeing as I doubt I'll be starting anything else major this side of New Year's, I figured I could narrow down my lists and share 'em here.

Games Released in 2025:
1) Ghost of Yōtei
2) Once Upon a Katamari
3) Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
4) Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered
5) Heretic + Hexen

I realise the last two games are remasters, but they both had more than enough care and attention paid to them to warrant recognition.

Oh, and a dishonourable mention to Star Wars: Episode I - Jedi Power Battles, which did not.

Games I Played in 2025:
1) Dragon Age: The Veilguard
2) Ghost of Yōtei
3) Once Upon a Katamari
4) Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
5) Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
6) Jurassic World: Evolution and Evolution 2
7) Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered
8) Life is Strange: True Colours
9) LEGO Horizon Adventures
10) inFAMOUS: Second Son and First Light

Forgive the doubled-up entries for the Jurassic World and inFAMOUS games, but I played 'em back-to-back and they're basically the same, so they blend together real easy.

Haven't played and beaten a ton of 2025 games, unfortunately. But if I had to highlight a couple I have played and finished...

Donkey Kong Bananza would be my pick. Pure Nintendo magic from beginning to end, with the best final hour or so I've ever seen in any of their games to date. The controls are incredibly tight, I love the very experimental approach to 3D platformer design, the music is consistently fantastic, combat and exploration are PURE fun, and other than a tacked on co-op mode, I can't really think of any area where it fell flat for me.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is probably my runner-up. Pretty strong Western JRPG-like, even if the sheer amount of worshipful glazing it has enjoyed online makes me a little more automatically critical of it than I might otherwise be. It's not the perfect masterpiece people are making it out to be, but it's very pretty (especially at 4K60 on a nice PC), has an emotionally resonant story, at least one really engaging plot twist, lovely music, and combat is pretty consistently fun.

I really wanted to have played Clair Obscur before the Game Awards, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. This will end my very short streak of playing the game of the year for the last 3 years. I wanted to know if I thought it was deserving myself because of all the endless praise, but I will have to trust that it is

At least Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was nominated and would (probably) still be my personal choice, unless Clair had blown my socks off and then blown them on again. Yotei is very good. And eventually I will play Clair and Death Stranding 2, but when, who knows.

It looks like another great year for games, at least. And another year where I realise I don't actually play as many games as i'd want to 😅

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and there's no competition.

Imho, it's the best game since TOTK. Yes, it's that good. I would put it a notch above RE 4: Remake and I LURVE survival horror and RE.

Haven't been able to gel with Expedition 33, I’ve tried a couple of times. It should be right up my street but it’s not happening. I guess all the fan gushing hasn’t helped. I don’t know why that impacts my experience so much. I had the same problem with Baldurs Gate. Loved Original Sin 1, mostly loved Original Sin 2 but keep bouncing off BG3. Sure, it’s a different vibe but the nuts and bolts are all there so what gives?! I guess it’s just my expectations are super elevated and I’m less willing to look past any minor faults. It’s a shame but I’ll probably not enjoy Original Sin 3 (or whatever they are going to announce) because of that 😂

Honestly not sure I played any other brand new games this year, at least none that stand out. Although I am a couple of hours into Octopath 0 (demo) and it’s quite fun.