🔗 Share this article

Well, how was 2025 in your household? Was it truly wonderful as people post on Facebook? Overflowing with academic success for the kids and riotous dress-up gatherings for the parents? Maybe it felt like a ocean of frustration with only occasional fun highlights? And was any of it authentic, or are we all digitally altered synthetic personas with unrealistic teeth?

I've corralled the family together, whether they wanted to or not, to reflect on the paramount thing in a calendar year: which video games we were obsessed with the most. Without further ado:

Game First Daughter Played the Most

Horizon Zero Dawn

"Can’t you pick just one?"

"This isn't my games column."

On her phone, she’s been playing Cityscapes and "searching for reasonable healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In reality."

Game Middle Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I refuse to play games on my phone." He seemed insulted that I even asked. I respect that.

Release Youngest Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

Her goal is to get into acting, but when she wasn’t singing, she was immersed in Resident Evil. She also spoke at length in great detail about her achievements on The Sims, where her avatar has a blooming utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her older sibling has outside the game.

Game the Partner Played the Most

Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time

She started the year at sixty percent completion and finished the year at eighty-two percent. She's in it for the long run not a sprint for her. Her mobile diversion: something called Woodle, where you have to unscrew pins.

Release I Found Amusing That My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Every time I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I set about him like a cross between a relentless heckler. When he protests, I reply that I am behaving this way to toughen him up so he can mature and play games for adults. It’s a very Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Impressive Gaming Family Member of the Year

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

It wasn't even close for this one. She is a machine. Even better than I was at my peak gaming days in my prime.

Title I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

Nothing came close to the hours I spent on this remarkably well-crafted card game digital pastime, with its constantly evolving range of cards and game variations.

Title I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The worst thing about games that constantly evolve their range is you wake up one day and understand it is all just an attempt to suck you into fear-of-missing-out driven microtransactions. So love turned to hate halfway through the year and it got uninstalled.

Title I Wish I Had Played More

Doom: The Dark Ages

Excellent reinvention of a legendary franchise. Engrossing atmosphere from the start. I wish I could dispatch my demons so effectively in real life.

Title I Wish I Had Played More (Cerebral Edition)

Blue Prince

I decline to rush this beautiful, unique game and I just didn’t have the time or headspace to give it what it deserved earlier this year. With relatives staying over the festive period, I plan to dive into this in the wee small hours after appropriate hospitality.

Game That Kept Me Sane When I Needed It

Balatro

I know Balatro was the previous year's surprise hit, but I was slow on the uptake. And it is remarkable. It just gets each element right. Its gameplay loop is a wonderful concept, but the effects behind the different joker cards are so imaginative it has become a game I would happily play at any hour. Throw in the charm of the card design, and this is an definite peak of gaming. I dream of being stuck in a small space for hours just so I have the perfect excuse but play it.

Title I Got the Most Criticism For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I experienced a wave of criticism when I mentioned how a specific bug in another game damaged the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of art, sound, acting – which I appreciated even more after slogging through Outer Worlds 2. So thank you to the reader who took the time to send a message to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "missing the point". I present that verbatim, because I appreciate the effort, and she is obviously an astute judge of character.

Title Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Sure. Give me a bastard-hard non-linear thing and don’t tell me guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "explore". Great fun. I acknowledge that it has great art and is perfection if you are into the genre, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I desire less in my current stage of life. I was around back when most games were like this, and I'm over it. It was okay when I was a kid, but so was many questionable things.

Biggest Gaming News of 2025

Debate between questionable alliances that raised eyebrows, and high launch costs. Both morally indefensible and concerning.

Games I Would Name My Children After, Were I I Was Ever Crazy Enough to Have More

Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names bellowed from the garden at tea time.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. No joke. I don’t know if it’s because of button mashing or endless scrolling, but it burns like hellfire in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs protected back in the past.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2026

Grand Theft Auto VI.
And it will come out in 2026, even if we have to stretch time until the heat death of the universe.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.