2025 in Video Games

Across this past year, I have played something like 91 different video games. The actual figure will be higher, as there’s a lot of stuff I try and discard and forget to write down. As we’ll soon see, the difference between the list of things I played and things I finished is very stark. I’m very okay with this state of affairs; many games these days are hugely time-demanding to see through to their conclusion, and as should be obvious from the other 2025 posts I’ve published this week, I spend my time on many different media – and that’s not even mentioning my own creative efforts.

Note that I’ve included demos in this list, as I want to remember the stuff I tried out as in many cases I will follow up on it quite a bit later. Other times it’s just interesting to note stuff I tried, even if I don’t expect I will play the full game, such as DreamCore. Also, a demo is a game, it’s just a small piece of one, and as established this isn’t a list of games I finished.

As with my 2025 in film post, I won’t say much about most of these games. I will identify the games I actually finished in bold, and anything I played a lot will get some sort of comment. Otherwise I’ll only remark on things I thought particularly interesting, whether for positive or negative reasons.

• Dustland Delivery (PC)
• Batman: Arkham Origins (PC)
• Eggs Inc (Android)
  • I made an effort to 100% this exponential idle game – it has clearly been sunset and it felt like a fun pointless goal to pursue – but alas the final egg level is genuinely almost unattainable without a crazy level of grind
• Mouthwashing (PC/Steam Deck)
  • This is on the list of games I need to go back and finish. I had to stop playing it at one particularly gruesome moment because I was on a plane and I started feeling very self-conscious about what my character was doing!
• Deep Rock Galactic Survivor (PC/Steam Deck)
  • I played a lot of this, both before the 1.0 release and after, and I’ve continued playing it through the year – really fun game with varied loadouts
• Total Battle (Android)
• Starcom: Unknown Space (PC)
  • I thoroughly enjoyed this game, which proved that one can still make a Star Control 2 style game in the modern era, delivering fun gameplay, a sense of mystery to drive exploration, and an engaging sci-fi story
• Archero 2 (Android)
• Raid Rush (Android)
  • I played a ton of this game, and I think the drafting mechanics combined with tower defense make for really interesting and challenging gameplay. I also utterly deplore the aggressive and distasteful approach to monetisation it takes (sadly very characteristic of the mobile F2P space these days, and it has always been a space with a lot of very grubby actors)
• Killing Floor 2 (Xbox Series X)
• Predecessor (Xbox Series X)
• Whiteout Survival (Android)
• Underdark (Android)
• Infection Free Zone (demo) (PC)
• IDUN (demo) (PC)
• Terminator: Dark Fate: Defiance (demo) (PC)
• Infection Free Zone (PC)
  • I will go back to this later in its development – I had plenty of fun starting games where I currently live, and places I’ve lived in the past
• Slime 3K Rise of Despot (Xbox Series X)
• Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (Xbox Series X)
• Heart of the Machine (demo) (PC)
• Orcs Must Die: Deathtrap (Xbox Series X)
• Heart of the Machine (PC)
  • For a time this game was one of the more interesting strategy/narrative games I’d encountered, but after splitting timelines and starting over, I felt like there just wasn’t enough interesting divergence? It’s possible I was ‘playing it wrong’ as its developers do make famously obtuse and leftfield games
• Date Z (demo) (Xbox Series X)
• For the King 2 (Xbox Series X)
• Avowed (Xbox Series X)
  • I really enjoyed this, but thinking back on it I don’t have much to say. I liked how colourful it was. The moral choices were a bit so-so in the end. Good combat. Better than Elder Scrolls
• ExoMiner (Android)
• Super Snail (Android)
• Tower Destiny Survive (Android)
• Void War (demo) (PC)
• Balatro (Android)
• Tactical Breach Wizards (PC)
  • I think I almost finished this in 2024, and I made an effort to come back and finish it, but unfortunately it’s quite hard to come back to games that rely on remembering clever interactions and sequences!
• Old World (PC)
• Slime Castle (Android)
• Baldur’s Gate 3 (Xbox Series X)
• Annihilation (Android)
• Dwarf Fortress (PC)
• mo co (Android)
• Xenonauts 2 (PC)
  • I’m a crowdfunding backer of this game, from 2018, and it’s still not done. I got fed up of waiting and played through it as soon as they finished implementing the endgame. It is really good and I will play it again. It can be very challenging.
• Dice vs Monsters: Roguelike TD (Android)
• Royal Kingdom (Android)
• Heroes v Hordes (Android)
• Diplomacy is Not an Option (PC)
  • I adore a good horde defence survival city builder game, and this is a good one – though I admit I became a little tired of this before the end. The cutscenes are not funny enough to warrant their duration or pace, and missions could sometimes be a slog, but I did overall enjoy it
• Stellaris (PC)
  • I will never stop, even if I sometimes uninstall it for a bit
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius (PC)
  • Just before Christmas my friends and I beat four AI teams on Ultra Hard difficulty – we’re getting pretty good at this
• Human Fall Flat (Xbox Series X)
• Void War (PC)
  • I completed just one run, so this is only completed on a technicality. It is basically 40K FTL with both serial numbers filed off
• Xenopurge (demo) (PC)
• Tower Dominion (demo) (PC)
• Tower Dominion (PC)
• Dune: Awakening (PC)
  • I have enjoyed my time with this, although after a while I forgot to restock my generators and my base was entirely destroyed. Oops. I’ll return at some point, when I can be bothered to rebuild everything… it will take a while.
• PUBG (Xbox Series X)
  • An evergreen game, I love playing this in the Casual mode with friends. Annoyingly, more pro players are now showing up in Casual, and I wish they’d fuck off back to the Normal mode where they belong – and leave Casual mode to the old guys who play a couple of times a week at most
• Sunderfolk (Xbox Series X)
• System Shock 2 Remastered (PC)
• GAMESCOM PC
  • This was the very lazy way in which I recorded that, while at GamesCom, I played demos of Therapods, Rockbeasts, and Static Dread: the Lighthouse. Of these I am very eagerly awaiting the release of Rockbeasts
• The Horus Heresy: Legions (Android)
• Endless Legend 2 (demo) (PC)
• Mechabreak (Xbox Series X)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC)
• Boat Game (alpha) (Android)
• Jupiter Hell Classic (PC)
• Wittle Defenders (Android)
• Tiles Survive (Android)
• Survivor dot io (Android)
• Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 (Xbox Series X)
  • I am still playing this, albeit slowly, and am in Act 3. It is a pretty wonderful game
• Polytopia (Android)
• Aethermancer (demo) (PC)
• Six Ages: Ride like the Wind (PC)
• Cryptmaster (PC)
• Ale Abbey (PC)
• Dawn of War: Definitive Edition (PC)
• Caves of Qud (PC)
• Starcom: Nexus (PC)
  • See above notes on the other Starcom game – this one is a little older but also good
• Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (demo) (PC)
• Kingdom Rush: Battles (Android)
• Heroes of Might & Magic III HD (PC)
• Stellar Sanctuary (Android)
• Pocket Rogue (Android)
• Nova: Space Armada (Android)
• Puzzle & Dragons: 0 (Android)
• Escape from Duckov (PC)
• God of War (PC)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Xbox Series X)
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC)
• DreamCore (demo) (PC)
• Squad Blast (Xbox Series X)
• Superball (Xbox Series X)
• Imperium Galactica (PC)
• Duskpunk (demo) (PC)
• Warhammer: Dark Omen (PC)
• Uprising (PC)
• Uprising 2 (PC)

Next year, I hope to play a shorter list of games, and maybe finish a few more. I’d like to focus my time on a mix of the larger, more evergreen games I enjoy (DRG Survivor, Stellaris, Darktide, Gladius, etc) and actually seeing through shorter and more interesting games, primarily on the indie side.

I also expect to play fewer F2P mobile games; in the first three quarters of the year I was trying to check out a lot of different games, and in truth I think most of the companies working in that space aren’t doing anything interesting. The exceptions drawn from what I played, aside from titles from developers I won’t speak about for reasons of bias, would be Raid Rush – good game, vile monetisation – and Kingdom Rush: Battles – an interesting effort from a classic premium game developer for mobile, which I fear won’t have much longevity, but I hope to be proven wrong.