Games of 2025
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Games of 2025
January 2nd 2026
I played a wide range of games in 2025, with only a few new releases making the cut and many older games being picked up for the first time or revisited. With the absolute huge backlog of amazing games out there, it's pretty easy to wait a bit and grab whatever sparks interest once it goes on sale. I tend to get in the mood for a certain type of game and during that, play a bunch of different games in the same genre. Throughout the year I definitely gravitated to: ARPGs, RPGs, Strategy, Shooter, Roguelike, and MMORPG games.
Overall a great year for gaming, I find my backlog growing and growing every time GoG or Steam has a sale. Luckily creating this website has given me some additional incentive to try new games and bounce around a little more, otherwise I'd probably still be stuck in OSRS for most of my time. In 2026 I look forward to getting into some more CRPGs, especially the Shadowrun games I recently bought. There will most likely be some replays as well - with Cyberpunk 2077 starting to catch my interest again and I often catch myself thinking about Baldurs Gate 3 again. I'm sure there will be the odd new release that I absolutely need to grab on day one and look forward to finding those out. The Steam machine pricing should also be revealed in the start of the year, fingers crossed that the RAM / GPU issues right now don't price that piece of hardware out of reach!
Some of these titles were only played for a brief period, whenever a certain mood hit, while some are staples - always installed on the desktop and regularly fired up. Below is a list of the games from the year in alphabetical order and some thoughts about each one. Links to included for some of the more obscure stuff.
Amid Evil
I got hooked on Boomer Shooters near the end of 2025, and while looking for new games, I came across Amid Evil. This is a really great game that captures the fun on Quake, and mixes it with the fantasy of Heretic. Snappy gameplay and satisfying weapons make for a good time.
Civilization 5
Every year I get a craving for some good-old 4x strategy action. The newer Civilization games don't interest me, so I go back to number 5. This game has tons of depth but can still be really fun with a surface level of understanding. I never stick with it long, but a couple several hundred turn games will fulfill my craving until next time.
Clair Obscur Expedition 33
One of the few games I picked up right when it came out. I've always loved JRPGs and was immediately drawn to this game based on it's art direction and crazy twisted world. In many areas, this was THE game of 2025 - winning many of the awards, and a great example of what a small team of folks who want to create a game and not a product can do.
Daggerfall Unity
Earlier in the year I took the time to load up a heavily modded version of Daggerfall and got really into the game for a period of time. Despite some of the repetitive content and restrictions from being an older title, Daggerfall still has some great world and character building available to those who want to develop a deep head cannon for who their character is and what is motivating them through the world.
Diablo I
With the DevilutionX port, Diablo I is a joy to play on modern hardware. I consider this game to be closer to a Roguelike than an ARPG these days, as APRGS seem to be based on the endgame grinds and constant progression after the story. Diablo I is focused on the journey across 16 levels, and using what you find along the way to triumph over evil. A really fun game to fire up and see how far you can get with whatever drops - I still have fond memories of opening up the Butcher's room and hearing "Ahh, fresh meat!" for the first time.
Diablo II Resurrected
Diablo 2 is one of the games that is always installed on my desktop. I can go long period of not playing, but it's a staple, a "comfort game" for me and possibly my favorite ARPG ever. I've been working on maxing out each character and completing my Grail; the collection of each unique item in the game, as long term goals that keep me coming back.
Doom 2016
Before I went down the Boomer Shooter rabbit hole, the newer Doom games got my attention. I played Doom 2016 a few different times over the year, reinstalling and starting new playthroughs. This is a really satisfying game when you just want to blow up some monsters. It's very reasonably priced these days and runs well on Steamdeck to boot!
Doom The Dark Ages
A great example of how waiting a bit to purchase a game can be a benefit. When The Dark Ages came out early in the year, it was a full priced title around $80 - I picked it up near the end of the year for half the cost. It's a good game, but a divisive one for the Doom series and myself overall. I didn't find the mech or dragon levels in the game to be very interesting, but did really enjoy the combat and some of the more open, freeform levels. Overall worth the sale price, but it doesn't live up to the greatness that 2016 established.
Dread Delusion
A very cool PS1 style of RPGlite game. The world and visuals in the game are great, but the experience is let down by a weak combat system and some surface level RPG mechanics. Overall worth the price for the experience and a great game for the Steamdeck.
Everquest - Project Quarm and Project 1999
I've never played modern Everquest but have lots of nostalgia for Kunark / Velious era Everquest. I play on a few unofficial time locked servers - Project Quarm and Project 1999. Quarm is more focused on quality of life features, while Project 1999 is a (somewhat) faithful recreation of what the game was in the early 2000's. Both servers have agreements with the owners of Everquest - Daybreak Games that allows them to operate, which is pretty unique in the realm of private servers.
Grim Dawn
A fantastic ARPG that is heavily inspired by Diablo 2. Grim Dawn takes a bit of a different approach to the ARPG genre, where the focus is on the leveling of a character and the overall journey - as opposed to rushing to max level before the game "starts". A great game with lots of content and another expansion pack coming in 2026, it's worth picking up.
Heroes of Might and Magic III
I love the look of this game, even if I'm kind of shit at it. I regularly load up Heroes to play through a campaign or a scenario and always enjoy trapesing around a map collecting resources and artifacts with a big stack of some archer type unit. Another comfort game that is great to play and probably can run on almost any hardware.
Heretic
Another of the games that I stuck with when trying out Boomer Shooters near the end of the year. There is something about the fantasy world of Heretic that really draws me in, the idea of using magic in a shooter setting is really appealing to me. I never make it too far, but I always seem to have a version of Doom source port installed on the desktop. Throughout 2026 I hope to explore more of these types of games.
Last Epoch
Another interesting ARPG that takes inspiration from Path of Exile and the Diablo series. I've always liked Last Epoch for it's inventive crafting system and the ability to make a somewhat viable endgame build without following a guide (depending on how you define endgame). I don't follow the game closely but there seems to always be new content to explore when I do load it up and the leveling process is smooth.
Loop Hero
Loop Hero hooked me for a couple weeks, where it was the game that I wanted to spend my available time on. The journey of unlocking new cards and building up your town over many runs is really satisfying and part of what I love about Roguelikes. My attention starts to fall off when I'm near the end of the progression curve and need to really refine my strategies. Even so, I was hooked on this game for a good 15 hours.
Megabonk
The hype got to me with this one. After hearing about this game from Podcasts, reading about it online and having friends recommend it, I took the plunge and much like Loop Hero - got totally sucked in. Megabonk is simple, stupid and very very addictive, especially during that progression curve phase where new weapons and characters are being regularly unlocked. Definitely a game I will revisit when it gets some more content.
Morrowind
After diving into Daggerfall, I spent some time with the OpenMW engine and put together a heavily modded playthrough of Morrowind. I've never actually finished this game, and tend to lose interest somewhere in the middle - but it's another great game for world and character building where you can make a run as easy or as difficult as you desire.
No Mans Sky
This game didn't get a ton of my time over the course of the year, with only about 10 hours spent. However this is a game that you can keep coming back to and if you enjoy the survival aspect of it - there will always be something to explore. The developers have spent so many years first bringing the game up to an acceptable standard and then far surpassing that, with regular updates and fixes, all for free. Even if it's not something that you would play for hours upon hours, this is the type of game development that should be supported.
Oblivion Remastered
Another of the games that I had to pickup as soon as it dropped. I have really fond memories of Oblivion but had a tough time going back to it, unlike the older tiles of Daggerfall and Morrowind, there was something about modded Oblivion that just didn't look right to me. So when the remaster dropped, I picked it up on day 1 and had a blast. Another game that will be put into the rotation for when I'm craving a Bethesda RPG, without the need to download and figure out a few hundred mods before a playthrough starts!
Old School Runescape
This is less of a game I play and more of a hobby in itself. I've been playing OSRS since 2021, and in that time have made 3 characters in the game. In 2025 I started my 2nd ironman (after a poor decision to deiron my last one) and have started to build a pretty decent account over the course of the year. This game takes time more than anything, with leveling of skills taking potentially 100's of hours in itself and many item grinds being considered "reasonable" when they only take 50 - 75 hours in total. Much of OSRS is measured in a number of hours that one might spend to complete one or many games, this MMORPG is just built different. Luckily lots of stuff can be done on a second monitor - I'm chopping trees while writing this list out.
Path of Exile
I tried Path of Exile 2 in late 2024 and couldn't get into it. The game may have changed, and I'll revisit the 2nd one at some point. For now, I still go back to the original POE for a season or two each year, to enjoy creating a zoomy build that blows up the screen with a couple button presses. POE is a great mindless ARPG, especially when following a guide, that can deliver lots of dopamine on a map to map basis.
Session Skate Sim
In an effort to find something modern that was more Skate 3 and less Tony Hawk, I came across Session Skate Sim. It's a pretty good sim game, with a focus on more realistic skateboarding and less wild tricks linked together. There is some discourse around the game, with it's developers either not being present enough or not focusing their efforts where the community would like them. But for a few sessions here and there, this is a good time.
Skald: Against the Black Priory
A very cool retro-inspired RPG game, with a great Lovecraft story and some fun CRT filters thrown in for good measure. I didn't make it all the way through this game, but look forward to another playthrough. The developer even released a series of mod tools for creating new adventures that hopefully creates some great content.
Two Point Museum
In the late 90's Bullfrog developed a few business sim games - Theme Park and Theme Hospital. Two Point Museum is a spiritual successor to that style of game. Packed with charm and a bunch of funny little interactions, this is a lovingly crafted game where you get to setup and manage your own museum. With a bunch of DLC available, there is a type of museum for just about anyone and definitely a title to come back to once in awhile.
Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader
The lore of Warhammer has always really interested me. I'm constantly watching / listening to lore videos and have read a few books, even tried my hand at painting minatures. While actually playing the tabletop version of 40k hasn't been my thing, I do want to get into the world. This is where Rogue Trader comes in, providing a great mechanism to dive into the insanity of the 40k world, all built on a very capable CRPG base.
Warhammer 40k Boltgun
Sticking with the theme from above, but from a different perspective. Boltgun is still steeped in the craziness of 40k but with more focus on Doom like monster arenas and jumping around while blowing up heretics with your boltgun. Chunky pixels and all, this game is less Boomer Shooter and more Doom 2016 like, but is fun nonetheless.
World of Warcraft
I've played WoW off and on since release, and usually come back for the newest expansion. I've missed a few expansions here and there but am starting to get excited for Midnight - releasing in 2026. I got pulled back in this year during the tail-end of Legion Remix, and started up again with 40 or so days to go in that event. Over the course of that, the boosted experience rates and crazy power levels that were available helped me level a couple new characters, trying tanking for the first time and get a ton of new transmog and mounts. While I'm not super hyped for housing in WoW, it's still a great game and there always seems to be something to collect or some achievement to work towards.