2025 was kind of a bombs ass year for games huh? (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Monday, January 05, 2026, 14:48 (1 day, 21 hours, 49 min. ago) @ Cody Miller

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is absolutely my game of the year. It might be in my top five of all time (although that would take some time to say with any certainty). It has some flaws, mainly in the Act 3 balancing--it's just hard to keep the battles at a good challenge level without accidentally overleveling and destroying everything. The story, the music, the combat . . . it's all perfect as far as I can tell.

Split Fiction was great.

I just started Silent Hill f, and it seems great so far. I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I'm eager to play more.

I ultimately put Silksong down after like 8 hours. It's excellent on almost every level, it just required more commitment than I was willing to give it at the time. I may pick it back up eventually. It took me a few tries to really get through the first Hollow Knight.

And Roger was a neat little game. Played through it in about an hour and it's pretty creative in how it tells a story without saying a word.

Mafia The Old Country was neat. I'd never played a Mafia game before, but I ended up picking this one up on a whim and really loved it. It's not really anything special, but it tells a neat story over ten or so hours. There's no surprises here, I don't think--it's just a classic mafia story. You know exactly where it's going, but it is well realized.

Death Stranding 2 was excellent, even if I ultimately came off being a little disappointed. It's got a bunch of neat moments, great music, it's absolutely gorgeous. I was hoping for a bit more than what it provided in gameplay, in that it was far too easy. I didn't do any of the post game stuff with the guy that gives you timed challenges or anything, but I was disappointed in even just the basic sort of route finding aspect--it never required any sort of clever thinking or problem solving. It's a game that's probably better than the first in just about every way, but somehow also doesn't really measure up to the first as a whole experience.

Baby Steps was the most surprising game this year for me. What I thought would just be a sort of silly, frustrating game ended up being way more fun, clever, and touching that I would have ever expected. The game is so much more than what it appears, but it's also just so cleverly and well designed on a fundamental level.

There's a bunch of stuff I didn't ultimately get around to but want to, like Keep Driving, The Alters, Citizen Sleeper 2, The Roottrees are Dead, Dead Letter Department, The Midnight Walk, Sektori, The Drifter.