Another year, another selection of the ten best games I got to play thanks to my work or during my free time. Was 2025 better than 2024? Or 2023? I don’t care that much about those questions. What matters is that it was a year full of surprises, emotional journeys, and interesting concepts.
Fighting games, dating simulators, French JRPGs, tabletop games… yes, there’s something for everyone here. I hope you find something to your liking in my personal top ten, and I wish you a great end of the year.
10
s.p.l.i.t.
This short game about writing commands on a PC is also one of the most intense things you will play this year. Find out the rest for yourself.
9
Date Everything
I still go back and think about my date with Doug, the personification of existential dread. He is a white dude with a spherical face sporting only eyes, a jacked body, and some loose jeans. He’s also a being that you wouldn’t really like to date — unless that’s your type, of course. But if you make the time to really know Doug, you’ll find someone special, and you might end up falling in love with him.
Date Everything is like this with more than 100 characters. Some are only funny gimmicks for a short time, but most of them have hilarious and touching lines that will resonate with you. Now go and flirt with the fridge, please.
8
Ball x Pit
There’s no such thing as too many balls on the screen.
7
Dreamcore
Liminal spaces are a tricky concept. It’s something that can affect you at high levels, messing with your anxiety and your sense of paranoia in unique ways, or it can be the most boring thing in the world. I’m part of the first group, and Dreamcore is a terrific attempt at making a video game about exploring these areas.
Explore swimming pools, an infinite neighbourhood, children’s playrooms, a unique hotel, and more upcoming maps that will leave you wondering who you are and what you are really doing in these spaces.
6
Clair Obscure Expedition 33
Look, I confess it: I did the ugly thing. When Expedition 33 started winning all the awards that it could, and the conversations about it labeled it as one of the “best games ever made,” I started feeling negative things toward it. “Maybe it wasn’t that good,” I thought.
I recently came back to it to play the free DLC, and I started doing all the optional content that I left behind, remembering its characters and narrative beats. I’m sorry, guys; yes, Expedition 33 is that good.
5
2XKO
After some alpha tests that left the FGC scratching its head, and a tiny roster for a tag fighting game, 2XKO actually came out and… it was super fun.
What’s more, it’s the first game in this subgenre that made me want to improve — I’m a classic 1vs1 guy. I’m still not there yet, but as long as Riot Games continues to update and keeps things fresh, I will be playing 2XKO for ages.
4
Donkey Kong Bananza
The return of video games’ most famous gorilla to 3D was a victory for everybody. Jumping platforms is one thing, but breaking (almost) everything around you to create inventive solutions is on another whole level. It has been done before, but not with this level of artistic expression and creativity. Now I’m just hoping that DK doesn’t take decades to come back like this again.
3
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
I was intrigued when a sequel to the original Citizen Sleeper, a game I really love, was announced. How do you expand its straightforward dice mechanics, and how do you come up with a story that is as charming, tough, and gut-wrenching as the first?
Well, Jump Over the Age has done it again, with a gameplay that double-downs its depiction of hard routines, the scarcity of money, and the bad luck that we can have under the late stage of capitalism, with (once again) brilliant writing and the possibility to create a crew. Prepare for one of the best endings in 2025.
2
Look Outside
Look Outside surprised me from the very first minute. From its classic RPG feeling to its mesmerizing and intriguing universe, I was completely submerged in the walls of its building full of indescribable nightmares. And I started dying. Over and over again. But something insidious, unsettling, but irresistible made me come back all the time.
Don’t let its cartoonish art style deceive you — it has some of the most repulsive and creepy stuff I have seen in a video game. Ever.
Honorable Mentions
- Sonokuni
- Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
- Despelote
- Absolum
- Death Stranding 2
- No, I’m not a Human
- Sektori
1
Silent Hill f
A Silent Hill game? As my GOTY? Has Konami finally published something good? Yes, yes, and yes. While this is one of my favorite video game series, I haven’t played anything remotely interesting from it since Silent Hill 4: The Room in 2004. Fortunately, NeoBards Entertainment called Ryukishi07, someone who really knows how to write personal stories about struggles. And it shows.
Hinako Shimizu’s journey is dreadful, impactful, full of meaning, memorable, with weird and remarkable characters, and also scary (and relatable!) as hell. Silent Hill f has all the elements I want from the series, plus some I wasn’t expecting (a combat that is both great thematically and gameplay-wise). I hope the next one keeps exploring new locations and completely new casts of characters.
- Released
-
September 25, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
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Neobards Entertainment
