2025 was an odd year for me and my "best of" list. Many of the titles I thought would be absolute locks for this--like Battlefield 6, Europa Universalis V, Civilization VII and Endless Legend 2--ended up getting nowhere near it!
Battlefield 6's campaign was a disaster, and I wasn't able to play the multiplayer at all thanks to a bug where the game told me my GPU wasn't physically connected (it, uh, was), so it's been a total write-off. EU V was fine, but as I said at the time, it's so ambitious, and needs so much more tweaking, that it feels like a game I won't sit down with properly for another year or two. Endless Legend 2 was just a good old-fashioned disappointment, and Civ VII, whew, man.
Luke Plunkett
I know it's weird to lead a list of my games of the year by talking about games that weren't on it, but those disappointments defined my 2025 in a way, and seem to be mirroring many of the various crises the wider games industry itself has faced in 2025. Namely AAA bloat and strategic mismanagement leading to dependable sequels losing their way, before the resulting layoffs threaten to simply make everything even worse.
In a way, then, putting this list together felt like a slight bummer; I'd come into 2025 really excited for a bunch of seemingly dependable heavy-hitters, all of which ended up letting me down. Thankfully, Civ VII sucking simply freed up more time to play other stuff, like all the games on this list, most of which I'd never even heard of until I sat down with them, but all of which ruled on their own merits, and my year was better for having played them.
FLOTSAM
A survival city-builder in broadly the same vein as stuff like Frostpunk and Ixion, Flotsam is a game set at the end of the world that, thanks to its vibrant art style and optimistic outlook, actually feels more like the start of a new world instead.
Luke Plunkett
TAVERN KEEPER
It's always fun running a pub, pubs are inherently great, but running a pub that's truly yours, right down to the designs on the cushions and the placement of the silverware, is even better.
Luke Plunkett
TOWN TO CITY
It gives me the systems of a city-builder but the elegance of a town-painter, the challenge of juggling morale but letting you cheese your way to improving it by drowning your residents in dogs and fancy clothing stores. It's given me everything I love from this genre and tossed out everything I don't, then played some wonderfully soothing accordion music over the top, just for good measure.
Luke Plunkett
THE KING IS WATCHING
Every game has this wonderful tension to it, where I always feel like I'm doing well enough to survive, but never like I've perfected my build, a constant pull between doing well enough to progress but always feeling like I could do, and learn, more.
Luke Plunkett
MAFIA: THE OLD COUNTRY
The Old Country is not a breakthrough in third-person action, or historical story-telling. It never needed to be. This is a good book on a rainy afternoon, the latest episode in a dependable, long-running soap opera, a ticket to the 117th Mission Impossible movie. It's fine, and sometimes fine is great.
Luke Plunkett
THE DRIFTER
Its story of grief, love, murder and monsters plays like you're clicking rapidly through a pulpy graphic novel, and nailing that Lucasarts energy is hard! Those games were magic, making this magic by association!
Luke Plunkett
TO A T
To A T's attention to details really helps ground you in both the place and your character, but more importantly, it centres you on their struggles as well. This is, without making a huge deal of it, a beautiful little tale about disability, a light-hearted way of putting the player in the shoes of someone who is doing their absolute best to live their day despite the constant obstacles (and sometimes even bullying!) in their way.
Luke Plunkett
9 KINGS
The creativity at your fingertips, the seemingly-endless possibilities for each run given the possible combinations, the extremely cool pixel art on the cards–9 Kings is great.
Luke Plunkett
ASSASSIN'S CREED SHADOWS
Long-running series ebb and flow all the time, they have highlights and lowlights, and Shadows was never going to be some singular act of salvation. It's just a cool video game.
Luke Plunkett
TWO POINT MUSEUM
Unlike loads of other management games, you can't skimp on staff in Two Point Museum; if you don't pay them they get angry and walk, and losing your best workers can cripple your entire operation. So look after your people! Good lesson!
Luke Plunkett
AVOWED
Avowed does not shy away from putting tough choices in front of you, but what separates them from many other RPGs is that they're choices that are tough for you. Avowed will show you a town and say, oh no, is this town in trouble? You could do this to try to help, which will kill a bunch of people. Or you could do this, which will kill a different bunch of people. Or this, which could kill nobody, or kill everybody. Who knows!
Luke Plunkett
MIKA AND THE WITCH'S MOUNTAIN
I've said it before but I'll say it again: I love a small sandbox more than almost anything else in video games. The island in Mika isn't very big, so it won't be long before you meet everyone and visit every location at least once. But that's great; it really helps the communal feel of the game that you grow to know every square inch of the place and everyone living on it.
Luke Plunkett
