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Wow, Liam read my mind. Usually, it is Colin Moriarty that says something, I have been thinking.

Yesterday, as I put down Days Gone Remastered and returned to KCD 2 I thought to myself "how cool it is to have a time machine".

I spent a good hour just walking around the open world looking at stuff and trying to guess what it was for.

It is a relief to see the wonderful games of 2025 get their flowers from the staff of Push square, because of the frankly boring award-season this year, where it would seem like the marketing/bribe budget of Sandfall is in the billions😅

For me, the lists are as much about discovery as seeing your favorite games get praise. I've wish listed quite a few games after reading your lists so far. Keep it up in mandated overtime 😉

My game of the generation.

From what I gather it is too big, too generous and too well made to be understood by the general public of gamers, but for the connoisseur it is a seminal entry bordering (but not reaching) The Witcher 3 in scope and quality.

I currently own a PS5 Pro, PSVR 2, a Portal, Pulse Elite headset, and a PS Plus Premium*, so I might be a teensy bit biased, but I found the service to be excellent for me in 2025. I ended up subbing most of the year, after not being a member for a long time before that.

*a crazy fan boy, and have been since PS 1.

@UltimateOtaku91

Like a true curmudgeon, I am also very much against Roblox, COD, Fortnite but not GTA the single player game. Not because they are not 'great' in some respects but because they retain their player base longer than they should. There are other reasons I could conjure up for each game of course.

I am perhaps unconstructive, but your second paragraph I simply disagree with from the outside looking in. They never win anything, and if they are allowed to smother the competition, the gaming scene will become a hellscape.

I can definitely ask for gaming journalists to do what I think is their job - to fight against what I find are industry -destroying practices. In my opinion, Pushsquare is paid to push these products (I don't actually know). Again, I don't THINK that many 5-17 year olds are actually reading Push square, and their parents likely capitulate to their kids. They don't want their kids to feel left out, and they appreciate the time their kids are incapacitated, I think.

It is a kind of 'Who Killed Davey Moore'-situation where Bob Dylan blames "everyone" for the death of the titular boxer.

The comedic highlight of the games of the year-lists doesn't disappoint.

My personal game of the year nomination #2 is...

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
For me, KCD2 has two games in one. I played 90 hours or so before the game opened up to a second half I am still sort of putting off despite Warhorse dropping a whole set of DLC.

The dedication to realizing medieval Bohemia is the main draw for me. The fact that it is a true Role Playing Game with an impressive open world with hundreds of well-made mechanics only heightens the enjoyment.

It is a 10/10 game for me, a seminal achievement.

Oh, no!

That's very sad. What a legend to have done Call of Duty and then go on to create another beloved studio that made one hell of a Star Wars game twice with another one hopefully coming.

I just rolled credits on the most? beautiful game on the Pro: Days Gone Remastered. That's my pick!

@MrStark

I thought that E33 was in fact quite a simple rpg that trades depth for timing of button pressing in attack and defence?

Supposedly, everyone used one build for beating this game?

There's a story, but I guess I have understood it to be without choices and quite linear?

If all of this is true - then it sounds like a perfect tool to get other gamers than just RPG gamers invested into playing (J)RPGs, but I am afraid it would disappoint people who are in to complex RPGs.

I have been looking forward to this feature!

It seems as if Aaron has done it again with his list. Great set of games on that one... As this is a recurring feature, and opinions are welcome, I'd slot my nominations in with each feature article.

#1 Nomination for game of the year

Days Gone Remastered Oh boy, this game is better than ever and holds up sublimely. Like the finest of wines, I am amazed every time I play it, that a second one never made it to market. And overwhelmed with shame on behalf of the Bend devs who publicly spoke out against the brilliant creators of Days Gone, the reviewers who betrayed its quality and the Sony execs who foolishly rejected the sequel.

The enemy AI is so incredible in this game. You've heard of the horde mechanic, but it is the human enemies that have diverse strategies and approaches to engagements. Like, the enemies time their advance, springs forth simultaneously, flank of need be and will even sneak up on you. They will retreat if need be, and in full gear are very tough to take down. No matter how and when you shoot or blow them up, even in mid animation, they will have cool deaths. They guard their territory with all manner of traps, ambushes and alarms that will surprise even the toughest combat veteran.

The world is one of the best open worlds ever made. Each drive into the wild can feel different and unique. The world is out to get you. You will be hunted down and preyed upon. Each time you die, you know the world earned the kill. The setting is beautiful Oregon - imagine a pulpy rendition of The Road and that is what Days Gone in parts are - and much more of course. Traversal of the Open world requires skill and knowledge of you want to survive the ambushes and hordes of zombie that await you. There are constantly little question marks setting off new narrative adventures testing your ability to ensure the world.

I love GT7 because of VR, but I like it for its many cars and the dedication to realism. I would have preferred something like Burnout to this kind of PURE realism, but I'm happy to not be the best there is to the game.

Also, I really like that it is updated so frequently and has a lot of modes. Supposedly, you can drive gocarts but I haven't even found/unlocked that content yet. The books with challenges have been great although they are too challenging, and the price to unlock vehicles and how to unlock them is too much of a grind to me.

I wonder how many Forzas have been created and taken off the circuit whilst GT7 has existed...

I tried Days Gone Remastered and haven't been able to put it down again. Nixxes gave the game an excellent nee coat of paint and the mechanics are still impressive as nothing else has emulated it to my knowledge.

Every time I put on the helmet, magic happens.

@LifeGirl @LifeGirl

What!? That is satire... right?

It is a win. Whatever they change it into won't be as well thought out as Sony First Party Intellectual Property.

I had fun with it. Nothing mindblowing, but worthy of anyone's time.

It could be VERY promising if a sequel ups the ante considerably!

Common sense prevails in the vote.

At some point in time I have to try this game. Maybe after I finally finish the game of the year-winner BG3.

We all trust Larian.

They have the people in creative fields and aren't skimping.

So long and thanks for all the fish..

Can't wait to try this as part of my subscription!

I also just managed to roll credits on an amazing VR experience in the Star Wars: Tales of the Galaxy.

PS Plus has been really killing it since I joined during Days of Play for a real great price.

Let me spoil you the story of The Man Who Erased his name. There's this overused character who goes Deep undercover or forgets who his is, and he's protecting this girl who sort of betrays him. And he fights men in diapers that are chasing off seagulls. The actual end.

Thanks for the video!

It really showcases the game well, and most people should know if it is for them.

I would like a fresh dose of bungie-lore. I just need to assemble a crew👍

I would have included GTA 6 but the management managed to tank their reputation completely. I was already suspicious of what they might put into the game in terms of predatory practices and their pricing scheme.

As is, there are so many great games already to choose from that making the list is really tricky. I had to go with Wolverine as it will be a childhood dream come true. Then, Blood of Dawn walker and 007 from Danish IO Interactive. The rest were difficult to choose from.

I am looking forward to hearing what it does on PS5 (Pro).

Also, you wrote about this just last week - there's no mention of this a year ago or I just completely overlooked it.

The trailer for Divinity is probably showing off the spiritual successor to The Witcher 3 or should I say a strong rival.

Think about it: CDPR created an RPG that fully rivals GTA's open world. Now Larian is competing with CDPR that's also competing with GTA.

Now, my hype level for GTA has plummeted after their corporate structure completely ***** up and pushed beyond greed into avarice which is a deadly sin. They need a giant slap to learn their lesson. The bigger the slap, the bigger the lesson.

I can't play much, but I really need to find out if the VR Star Wars game has more to offer before it is ranked away from me!

Of course, I'm playing KCD2 again. I have to get into it again in terms of mechanics, but it should be fine👍

Also, I've started up Pacific Drive which is a cozy little game that doesn't rock my world, but it scratches that base building itch that Fallout 4 created. I might play more of it.

I finished Forspoken without finding/seeking out a single side quest and only 1 (one) magic dungeon. It was like playing a game that were finished 2/3. The narrative was... one large bait-and-switch. The reviews that deemed it a middling experience weren't robbing the game, and the ones that liked it probably didn't have the Ubisoft open world-fatigue.

A congratulations to the game and fans is in order!

All those awards to just 1 game soured my viewing a bit. The comic reliefs of the show carried me through - the dog mup echoed people's thoughts about the show in a fun meta way.

For one, I wanted other games to win. For two, it was basically the same speech from the same person over and over. Three, an indie game it is not!
I skipped everything and saw the entire stream in about 20 minutes the morning after.

I finished the game twice and stopped somewhere in the first third of a third playthrough as a Nomad. I eventually plan on finishing the game a third time and find/do the small things that I haven't done yet.

It is an outstanding game on many parameters and my scoring is of course taking into account the whole, fixed package on offer.

@Americansamurai1

PS Plus Extra/Premium is the best deal in gaming, in my opinion.

There's a clear difference in trying to dispell the illusions of raving adults and 'defending a multi billion company'.

We already have a dozen or more users who cannot help themselves but be overly critical about everything and they feel compelled to share their views (without any flavour but 'vitriol' to their comment.)

As usual, the update is quite good in my opinion. There's 2+ titles I'm interested in.

But I will mainly be playing KCD 2 to round off the year in exceptional quality and style👌

Let's say your review of PSVR 2-version is under way and you happen upon a technical flaw.

Are you then going to DEDUCT a point from the score when the game arguably gets better with the inclusion of VR like you did with Resident Evil 4 VR?

Perhaps it is a bit pedantic, especially if I've overlooked significant differences between the two cases.

If they had chosen to reveal it at the Game Awards, it would have been absolutely amazing and a memorable highlight.

Don't get me wrong: I'll gladly take a new Divinity and might even consider purchasing a revv up of DOS:2

And it is the games I look most forward to hearing about together with Wolverine.

I am somewhere in the middle of a Divinity 2-run, newly started and newly abandoned. If the rumour is true, I might upgrade if they provide a path for that.

HAVEN HAS USED AI!!!!

1. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 will be winning the categories in which it is nominated.

2. 2 or more PlayStation first party games will be shown off. If it goes really crazy, one of them hasn't been shown before.

3. The statue is revealed to be several games, one of them Diablo 4 as was already revealed.

4. XBOX announces a couple of ports to PS.

5. People in general will say the show was overall bad. They'll proudly parade their viewpoint around in the coming discourse.

Could this be a hybrid console like the Switch 2?

The PS5 Pro should be good for 7 more years unless they make modern games much more complicated than they are now.

Maybe Sony Playstation knows this and are pivoting to offering the same flexibility as the main competitor, Nintendo. Maybe the PS5 Pro is already powerful enough when optimized properly to be the most powerful console for years to come.

The Pro pricetag isn't bad if you trade in the original PS5 via a website for used things for sale.

The upgrade is enough to not want to go back once you pull the trigger. In two years time, it might be 'too late' to upgrade, but right now I'm half expecting it to be as good as a PS6.

Even if the PS6 punches above the PS5 Pro, it is a question of whether or not the improvements are enough to move consumers toward consumption.

@Frmknst

Good to hear about your controller's longevity.

I guess the battery life isn't terrible, but the point is it isn't its main feature.

I finished Banished: Ghosts of New Eden going for resurrection. I don't know how much fun I would get out of another run going for ascension, so it it shelved for now.

Forspoken is disappearing on Plus together with Star Wars, so I've started them up. Star Wars is really fun. Forspoken has a weird charm to it, and so I might finish the story but I hit a snag where it is difficult to progress.

Forspoken seems like a game that was finished 2/3 and then that two-thirds was polished a lot. The map is huge, as are the cities but it is also weirdly devoid of life and detail. The combat is fun, traversal is okay, but I keep trying to climb everywhere and it is clearly not what the game intended. The writing is fine - the criticism leveraged on this game's dialogue was unfair.

Alan Wake 2 trying to finish this game. A good get for PS Plus and inventive through and through.

By far, the biggest flaw in the PS5 ecosystem is the propensity for stick drift and lack of battery life in the Dualsense-controller.

Consumers are not protected against this and always end up coughing up 100 dollars or so for a replacement. I've had 2-3 controllers develop stick drift in this generation, and it is planned obsolescence which makes it come off as greedy. G.I.V.E. U.S. H.A.L.L.E.F.F.E.C.T.

I've not shopped at all - can't keep up with the entertainment I already have access to if I'm honest.

To an extent, the criticism I often levy at Microsoft for training their audience not to buy is exactly what happens to me when I subscribe to PS Plus.

I think if we look at the numbers of owned consoles and the amount of sales on huge, amazing games like KCD II and Ghost of Yotei, we can see the impact of online games, and free-to-play games as a service too.

That's a lot of reappropriated car chips

I can't believe you guys fell for the same trick in the space of mere months. Your articles about "mysterious updates teasing" has been wishful thinking at best.

It could just be a very good game - if it is I think it will survive even if it is a product with a dependence on capturing and sustaining your attention in an attention-based economy where they've already been labelled by a lot of the chronically online consumers.

You could say that Bungie has paid the wrong people if they wanted this to succeed no matter the quality of the game. Why? Because whoever they've paid for marketing and promotion haven't made sure that this game is viewed in a positive light.

It is not my month, but the last 5 consequtive months has brought me titles I wanted to at least try, so I shouldn't need anything to play - in fact I'm in a race against time to buck up and play some of the VR titles and Forspoken that is going the way of the dodo on PLUS this month.

Forspoken has a weird charm that I like, and it was, if you can believe it, Xena, The Warrior Princess, that brought this game to my attention.

This game is probably (one of) the best driving games/VR games ever made, and frankly the Spec III sounds like a massive update, and I might just get the Power Pack but why would I ever go for a 24-hour endurance run?

They would have to pay me a lot🤣

@Veritas7Ax

That's equal measures insane and impressive!

A good read, thank you!

JUST SAY 'PLATTED' - you're welcome😁.

Yeah, platinum is just a waste of time, If you ask me. I put 60 hours into Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and I just checked the list of trophies I still needed and they are all predatorily grindy in nature. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

The trophy list is probably good for making sure you experience EVERYTHING, and the plat isn't impossible if I chose to replay the game for a different ending. But I know now that it would have to be in at least a year's time.

Are there easy to follow guides for plats? Like, how to best go about it from A to Z?

I am playing The Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden as I have been doing for about two weeks, and the game's pace is now down to a grinding halt because I keep getting sidetracked by big and small Haunting Cases which are grrat, but the amount of it is a little overwhelming. It also stifles the pace of the game, and I didn't want to spoil myself in learning how much you have to do and whether it actually changes anything.

I am still enjoying it, but a 8/10 is a fair grade, and were it paced differently I think it would have remained a 9/10 for me.