Hi, it’s me again, writing about video games. A little bit later and a little bit differently than last year. First of all, for the handful of you who have been prodding me for this, here it is. The latter half of 2025 was particularly challenging, and left me in a place where I didn’t have the time, inclination, or just the juice to write. There were many factors involved with job and life stressors out of my control that meant I just wasn’t in a good headspace for it. In particular, I lost my constant companion of fifteen years, my little cat, Nemi. That cat saw me through a medical degree, a house, two flats, and many, many video games. Her loss was sudden and utterly heart breaking, and I’m still working through it, partially with the help of two lovely new boy cats who (quite literally) fell into my lap at just the correct moment. I know not everyone will understand, but when an animal has been the main constant in your life for all those years, the scale of that loss can be quite tremendous. So wherever you are, pour one out for the best little black cat there ever was.
As I’m sure you can understand, with a busy work life that frequently involves night shift and the fact the world seems to get heavier week by week, writing about games in the time I had free just felt a bit silly and indulgent in the face of ever encroaching fascism. But whether it’s the continued existence against all odds (seriously, apparently just mcdonalds and diet coke, constantly) of neon coloured dictators or the churn of AI slop, I suppose one of the ways we fight back is by both producing and engaging critically with art and entertainment in the face of a world that wants to reduce games to steam concurrence figures & removing developers from the creative process altogether.
Video games remain themselves in a bit of an odd place. Layoffs continue to devastate the industry, with both developers and journalists continuing to feel the strain. Polygon, of all places, was gutted and laid off most of it’s long term staff in 2025. “Artificial Intelligence” was probably the big story in games last year, with several instances of studios receiving major pushback for the use of generative AI (programs, or “models” which create content in response to a user request, or “prompt”, largely trained on the work of others, without their consent. Much of the disdain of their use comes from the use of these stolen works and the lack of originality involved in their use and outputs). Mariam Webster, the dictionary people, even made their word of the year 2025 , “Slop” - “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence”. More on that later. The CEO of Larian, studio behind beloved 2023 hit Baldurs Gate 3, even managed to make a series of repeated gaffes discussing use of AI within their creative process in the development of their new game. Go on, search “Larian CEO AI blunder”, I dare you.
Credit: Mariam-Webster
This all exists in a landscape where investors still don’t really understand how games are made, with stocks plunging in response to Google launching a new AI model which it states can “generate dynamic, interactive environments in real time.” Investor understanding appears to be that this will allow someone to simply generate a fully realised video game out of nowhere (spoilers, it won’t). Oh, and EA is being bought by the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
All in all 2025 was a bit of a mad year, progressing in some ways we could’ve expected (ongoing layoffs) and others we couldn’t. What about me? 2025 was the year I finally built a gaming PC and primarily moved to Steam as a gaming platform; supplemented by my Steam Deck. You and my wallet will both be glad to know this was prior to the explosion of AI data centre investment and speculation, with certain PC parts becoming worth their weight in gold and then some. No, we don’t have the time, word count or the spare systolic blood pressure for me to explain any of what I just said. If you want to know more, go listen to Ed Zitron’s Better Offline, found wherever you get your podcasts. I then did what any self respecting weeb worth their salt would do, and cover the PC and my new desk in anime figures.
The half-lit, upside down Gojo at the top really makes it.
Now, I’m going to upload this first part of my list as a stand alone blog and then drip feed my games of the year, probably game by game as I have the time and energy to write. I also have to say that whilst there were some incredible games this year, I’m not sure I’ll have enough games that meant enough to me to truly make a complete “top ten” - there’s very likely a top five in there, with perhaps reflections and opinions on another five as we go. The rule to be on the list is same as always - games on this list may or may not have released in 2025; many will have, but others may be games I simply played / rolled credits on / played enough to have an opinion on in 2025, and have come out in years past. This isn’t about the year 2025, it’s about my 2025. So expect blogs to drop in the days to come with my thoughts, feelings and opinions about the games that kept me company through the highs and lows of the year. Thank you for reading.
What should you do between blog drops as the list is released, I hear you ask? idk, read a book, watch anime, go and touch some grass or an animal. Tell someone you love them, go to a protest, or find other ways to help your community, if you have the time & privilege to do so safely.
Fuck capitalism, go home.