As we arrive at Game of the Year, it really does feel like 2025 was a particularly bumper year for video games. There were so many games I wished I had more time to play, particularly Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (I still need to play the original!) The Alters and Europa Universalis V. I reviewed more games this year than perhaps any year prior, which does mean I had less time to dedicate to playing individual titles, and when I did I was often returning to old favourites (looking at you The Division 2 and more recently,Fallout 76). I also am very much hoping Death Stranding 2: On the Beach gets its PC release in 2026. Anyway, here are my personal highlights from the last 12 months of games.
Gareth’s Game of the Year
Blippo+
Between Blippo+ and my Game of the Year for 2022, Immortality, it just shows the vast range of possibilities available in the FMV space, to create such incredibly different projects. Blippo+ is not strictly a “game”, it’s more of an interactive theatre show imagining what low budget early 1980s cable TV from another planet might be like, with various different channels and programmes all simulated. However, the presentation is so cohesive, almost even more than Immortality was because it presents itself so well as an in-universe artefact, never really ever revealing the artifice despite the comedy being very much tongue-in-cheek. I confess the strong vibes of Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (specifically the BBC TV series) from the entire presentation helped a lot to immediately get on my good side. Blippo+ is just delightful from start to finish, has great performances, incredible music and made me laugh a lot. I can’t offer higher praise than that.
Most Relaxing Game
Into the Emberlands
It was one of the first games I reviewed this year and one I kept thinking of during the year, even if I didn’t have that much time to go back to it. Into the Emberlands is incredibly charming, its cute aesthetic combined with roguelike exploration elements and some basebuilding as you march your little knacks (the small inhabitants of the Emberlands) around the procedurally generated map, picking up crafting materials along the way. You need to make sure you don’t run out of ember charge during each sojourn, but there are no enemies who will kill you directly. It’s not that complicated but it doesn’t need to be, and I just found the loop of exploring and slowly building up your settlement very relaxing.
Best Characters
Funniest Game
Date Everything!
Date Everything! I like to call “the dating game to end all dating games” because by its very nature, you can date… everything. What else comes after that? Your home is your oyster, with you able to date 100 inanimate objects within your house, each of which is fully voiced and has unique art. Even the games’ “Lavish Edition” DLC is a joke in itself, adding characters such as “Michael Transaction” for you to date. With some of the best and funniest writing of the year combined with some stellar performances, Date Everything! is the perfect mix of emotional drama when it needs to be, combined with copious laugh-out-loud ribaldry.
Best Old Game I Couldn’t Stop Playing
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
I’d already played an unreasonable amount of The Division 2 in previous years, and I’m now as of writing I’m up to a rather silly 257 hours played. Earlier this year Ubisoft randomly released a new expansion to the game (Battle for Brooklyn, adding a whole new map zone), and they’ve been doing a lot of work to keep the game running and continue to add in new seasonal content. It seems like a small team of developers within Massive took it upon themselves to keep the game actively in development, and presumably it has reaped rewards. Literally a few weeks ago, the newest season introduced AI human companions who can fight alongside you for the first time, which is quite a major new feature. The upshot is that The Division 2 continues to be the live-service game I have invested the most time into, with its relatively brainless loop of shooting and looting continuing to keep my skinner box mind satisfied.
Best Original Game Song
to a T – PerfecT Shape
I couldn’t end my Game of the Year rundown without mentioning the theme song for Keita Takahashi’s to a T, a children’s game about a teenager who is stuck in a T-pose, arms swung straight out to the sides at all times. The game is episodic in nature, structured like a kids TV show, and each episode opens with a title sequence featuring Asuka Sakai’s theme tune “PerfecT Shape”. It’s an insanely catchy earworm which I was singing constantly for weeks after playing the game. The end of episode song “Giraffe Song” is likewise excellent. The gameplay of to a T is a bit simplistic but it has a lot of personality, and the music goes a long way towards giving the game its signature charm.
