It’s already December, somehow. 2025 has been one of my favorite years, ever. Games have never been better. I got to travel the world to see friends and awesome events. I reviewed well over sixty titles. So here’s my top 15.
11-15
In no particular order, these games deserved shoutouts for how damned good they all are.
Number Ten
Obsidian dominated 2025 with three high-quality releases. The first, Avowed, took the Pillars of Eternity universe into a first or third-person RPG featuring fantastic writing and excellent combat.
Number Nine
Hinako is a beast. SILENT HILL f was the first time I had played through an entire SILENT HILL title. Her journey was a terrifying, gory, and eventually uplifting glimpse into 1960s Japan.
Number Eight
Bloober Team, fresh off the heels of their successful SILENT HILL 2 remake, brought us Cronos. Few games have matched the atmosphere and overall vibes of this desolate, miserably gorgeous saunter through post-apocalyptichttps://youtu.be/rBVf1O5s2sw Poland.
Number Seven
Borderlands 4 hit at a perfect time for me. I love my open-world looter shooters. Featuring far better writing than 3, I got a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of my 80+ hours with the game both in solo and co-op.
Number Six
The Outer Worlds 2 improves on every single aspect of the original, sometimes to a startling degree. The game plays like a dream and is full of wit and humor in a way few studios besides Obsidian can achieve.
Number Five
DOOM 2016 was a revelation, DOOM: Eternal was a fever dream, and DOOM: The Dark Ages is a precision strike directly into my subconscious. One of the best-looking and playing games of all time, it has been criminally underrated in online discourse.
Number Four
The dream of heading to Japan in the AssCreed series was finally realized, and it did not disappoint. A land of turbulent weather and history was done right with some of the most amazing wind, particle, and graphics systems I have ever seen.
Number Three
I hadn’t heard of this game until an Xbox Wire Game Pass press release brought it to my attention. Within 3 days, I had my third top game of 2025, mixing Soulslike and Deckbuilders in a way I never knew I needed.
Number Two
I gave this game a 9.7 and then got lambasted by the shittiest parts of the internet for ‘hating it’. Weird! Anyway, WUCHANG is one of the best soulslikes ever made, besting From’s offerings in multiple ways. From fans will now try and have me hanged as they did over my tepid response to Armored Core 6… Oh well! WUCHANG rules. It plays so damned well, looks great, has top-tier music, and I badly want to play it again.
Number One
I beat Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 roughly 3 weeks before the review embargo. It was incredibly difficult to have no one to talk to about. This game has one of the best stories and soundtracks in the medium of entertainment. I’m not talking just video games, but everything I’ve ever experienced. The hype feels overblown, but it is not. Expedition 33 is just that damned good.
There you have it, my top 15 titles of 2025. 2026 somehow looks even better. Despite an industry falling apart, developers are creating miracles daily through blood, sweat, and tears. Reward them with your patronage in any way you can, and be kind to each other. It’s just video games, after all.
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