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Alright, how was 2025 in your home? Could it be described as truly wonderful as you pretended on social media? Overflowing with academic success for the kids and elaborate costume gatherings for the adults? Or perhaps it was a ocean of disappointment with only rare fun highlights? Is any of this actually real, or are we all digitally altered synthetic personas with celebrity smiles?

I have gathered the family together, willing or unwilling, to discuss the most important thing in a calendar year: which video games we were obsessed with the most. Let's get started:

Release First Daughter Played the Most

Just Dance 2024

"Is it impossible to pick just one?"

"You can't expect my definitive list."

In the mobile realm, her go-to has been Cityscapes and "attempting to locate reasonable healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In reality."

Game Second Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I have no interest in games on my phone." He seemed insulted that I even asked. I respect that.

Game Third Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

She is trying to get into theatre school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was tackling Resident Evil. She also spoke at length in great detail about her accomplishments on The Sims, where the Shark has a successful utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her eldest sister has in real life.

Title the Wife Played the Most

Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time

She started the year at 60% completion and finished the year at eighty-two percent. She's in it for the long run not a sprint for her. On her phone: something called Woodle, where you have to extract pins.

Game I Found Amusing That My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Every time I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I give him a hard time like a cross between a classic comedy bit. When he protests, I reply that I am behaving this way to prepare him so he can mature and play games for mature audiences. It’s a very Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Skilled Gaming Family Member This Year

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

There was no contest for this one. She is incredible. Superior than I was at my peak gaming days in my prime.

Title I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

It was in a league of its own to the hours I spent on this remarkably well-crafted card game wizard’s poker, with its constantly evolving range of cards and game variations.

Game I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The downside about games that frequently update their range is you have a moment of clarity and understand it is all just an attempt to trap you with compulsion-based microtransactions. So affection became resentment halfway through the year and it went into the bin.

Title I Wish I Had Played More

Doom: The Dark Ages

Glorious reinvention of a classic franchise. Engrossing atmosphere from the beginning. I wish I could dispatch my issues so effectively in real life.

Game I Wish I Had Played More (Cerebral Edition)

Blue Prince

I refuse to rush this stunning, original game and I just didn’t have the mental bandwidth to give it what it required earlier this year. With family visits over the festive period, I plan to dive into this in the early morning after family time.

Game That Saved My Soul When I Needed It

Balatro

I acknowledge Balatro was 2024’s breakout game, but I was late to it. And it is exceptional. It just gets each element right. The core concept is a wonderful concept, but the powers behind the different joker cards are so imaginative it has become a game I would happily play any time. Combine that with the cleverness of the card design, and this is an absolute high-water mark of gaming. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a elevator for hours just so I have an opportunity but play it.

Title I Got the Most Backlash For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I received a minor pile-on when I critiqued how a technical issue in another game soured the experience for me, but that other title is still a colossal gaming achievement in terms of overall polish – which I recognized even more after playing Outer Worlds 2. So thank you to the reader who took the time to contact me to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "bitter, confused resentment". I share that in the exact way, because I respect the passion, and they are obviously an excellent judge of character.

Title Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Alright. Give me a bastard-hard non-linear thing and leave me without guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "look around". How delightful. I understand that it is beautiful and is perfection if you are into the genre, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I desire less in my adulthood. I was around back when all games were like this, and my patience is gone. It was fine when I was a kid, but the same could be said for many outdated things.

Biggest Gaming Controversy of 2025

Close call between business deals that raised eyebrows, and high launch costs. Both ethically dubious and repugnant.

Games I Would Name My Children After, If I Was Ever Foolish Enough to Have More

Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names called from the garden at dinner time.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. Seriously. I don’t know if it’s because of video games or doomscrolling, but it burns like the mines of sulphur in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs insured back in the past.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2026

Grand Theft Auto VI.
And it will come out in 2026, even if we have to make 2026 last until the cows come home.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.