I've finally bitten the bullet and tried emulation. I can just say the sheer amount of possible playable games is enough so supply multiple lifetimes.

There were many but the one I wanna mention is Dredge - a horror fishing game that is creepy fun. Wasn’t on my radar but popped up on gamepass and I love it.

Metroid Dread left such an impression on me after playing earlier this year that I bought and modded an OG GBA with a better screen. It was fun and frustrating all at once! My first time soldering since I was a teen. I proceeded to beat Metroid Fusion for the first time despite having the cartridge for probably as long as it had been since my last time soldering. I’m now playing Prime 4, although I’m not yet sure if that qualifies as a highlight.

Besides that, I also got sucked into Hades 2. I didn’t get the true ending to the first game but I did roll credits on this one! What a game. Pokémon Unbound romhack was also on the list of time sinks, but I gotta get back to beating that.

There are too many games I want to play and not enough time to play them, and with a programming background, I decided to basically use Agile methodology to schedule which games I can reasonably finish in a given month. I've been tracking my completion times and comparing against How Long To Beat to get good ballpark estimates. This year, I've beaten 30 games, 15 of which came out in 2025, and I think I can beat 3 more before the year is done. When a new game comes out, I don't like to play it unless I've played the earlier / mainline / canon entries in the series, so not only did I play Borderlands 4, I played through 1-3, the Tales games, and the Pre-Sequel. I played through the first three Mafia games and intend to play The Old Country once the Steam sale starts. I played not only Kingdom Come: Deliverance II but also its predecessor.

Speaking of KC:D2, that's the best game I played this year, by quite a margin. Obsidian put out two great games this year in Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2, but despite obviously sharing a lot of the same bones, they deliver quite different experiences. Dispatch was a treat. Split Fiction was what I wanted as an iteration on It Takes Two. Borderlands 4 continues what Borderlands 3 set up in making its systems fun for math nerds. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was fun and novel in so many ways, and I love the story behind its development; I do wish that I loved the execution of its story more, and I wish the combat wasn't so feast or famine, but those things didn't seem to bother most people. The Alters might be the most slept on game in 2025 relative to its quality; seriously, it's a great story, and it's nice to see that level of presentation in a game of its scope and genre. (A lot of Unreal 5 games in that list...)

Haven't played Silksong yet, but its release did get me to play Hollow Knight which had been sitting in my library forever.

I've gotten partway through Expedition 33, but decided to take a break after spending ~20 hours on act 1 alone (speaking of, I think it's about time to get back on that soon).

As much as I like single player games, I imagine the most significant amount of my time by far has probably been spent on multiplayer games like cod

2025 was such a good year for gaming.

Games worth mentioning for me personally:

• Ravenswatch came out at the end of last year, but it's an incredibly satisfying multiplayer roguelike. Really scratches that asymmetrical gameplay itch.

• Split Fiction is a master class in game design. It creates these awesome storytelling moments that could only be created in this exact way.

• UFO 50: holy shit this one came out of nowhere for me. It's like digging through a retro collection for diamonds in the rough, but there's more diamond than rough. It has honestly changed the way I approach video games and gaming in general. Also, Party House is so good.

• Hades 2 is pretty much exactly what I was hoping it would be. No notes.

I also played Clair Obscur, DK Bananza, Mario Kart World, and Silksong. Those are all good games, but none of them hooked me.

On osu!, finally achieved my player goal of achieving 400pp, then saw a drastic fall on my play time exploring other games. Still doing mapping for two different osu tournaments, but maybe i'm not there forever :)

Balatro became really addictive to me. 200 hours in, still haven't achieved completionist, but I definetly will. Fuck black deck

Marvel Rivals. Really good game overall, my initial expectations were really low considering Marvel has repeatedly fumbled my expectations on their games, but honestly the game felt like I was playing a game par with Overwatch 1 with Marvel characters.

I've got hooked into Trackmania very interestingly this year, my previous racing game experience was stuff like Most Wanted/Carbon, but appearently the osu! style "keep the improve grind" games interest me still. Aside from TM2020, I also got Stadium and Turbo, might get Canyon on a future sale to play.

Rhythm Doctor 1.0 came out, the last two chapters blew me away! I would hate to spoil anything, but let's just say they have used the tricks they did on Act 5 Boss Stage exceptionally well, again.

Last Command B-Side DLC was very enjoyable. Got it the day it came out, the included content was very fun. Story was meh, but again you don't really follow the story on a bullet hell game. The new stages were really cool.

I wasn't expecting to play Megabonk at all, but gave it a shot thanks to my Steam Family Library. Honestly it's a fine game, gives similar vibes to Balatro as a mob slaying game.

Lastly, got into Tetris: The Grand Master 4. It is unbelievably difficult, but have managed to unlock 3.1 on TGM mode, and on standard mode achieved 800 Master. TGM Master still feels way too tough, but I'm seeing improvements here and there.

Played several games this year I liked.

Hollow Knight with the release of Silksong I figured I should probably finally play this. Great game and deserves the praise it gets. Didn’t get anywhere near 100% completion on it but I am OK with that

Strangers of Paradise played on PS5. Once I figured out the battle mechanic I fell into a rythem with this game and really liked it. Ended up getting the platinum for it because I wanted to keep playing.

Iron Meat finally got a chance to play this. Really fun if short contra style shooter game. Ticks all the right boxes.

Lately I have been playing some classic games and getting retro achievements for them. Fun way to experience my old favorites again with new challenges. I recently played Zelda LTTP and got all the RAs for it. Some fun challenges for the game

Honorable mentions: Cyber Shadow, Firewatch, Mario & Luigi: Brothership

After years of trying to get into Sekiro and hitting a wall and just quitting, I finally stuck with it and not only did I finish the game, I also got all the achievements.

This year I unsubscribed from FFXIV. Speaking only for myself, Dawntrail was a massive drop in nearly all aspects after Endwalker. The music and environment were great, I was positively giddy when I reached Solution Nine... but the characters are unlikable, the antagonist is boring and one-dimensional, there is hardly any payoff for setups, one of the most significant conflicts gets resolved with a fucking pep talk, most of the first half of the main story only exists to extol about how much of a chad the current monarch is. Somehow the second half gets even worse with multiple contrived plot points relying on characters being idiots and the player being a passive observer, including the reintroduction of a high profile issue that had been present for the entire DECADE of the game's existence and resolved in a high profile way in Shadowbringers. Wuk Lamat was fine. Overused and dumb as a pair of boots, but fine.

I got to the final region, got the "I will now genocide the multiverse because my obviously unsustainable economy is running out of resources" monologue, and just stopped playing. Unless 8.0 sees some massive improvements, I have no plans to finish Dawntrail.

On the completely different end of the spectrum, Warframe is in the best place it's ever been. The last four major updates (1999, Isleweaver, Vallis Undermind, and The Old Peace) have been fucking phenomenal, both in terms of story and gameplay. The Old Peace (released literally a few days ago) also contains the most valid crashout in history. Rap tap tap, little piggy. The new gamemodes are fun, fast-paced, and so far haven't outstayed their welcome, although like always, I'm worried about their longevity since they're essentially content islands.

Warframe's music is exceptional. I'll always appreciate the works of Keith Power (he gave us We All Lift Together and This Is What You Are), but the current composer Matt Chalmers has elevated the game's music both in quality and variety. Starting with 1999, there are no songs that I ever want to skip, and that includes the virtual boy band. Even if you have no interest in the game, you shouldn't skip the music: TennoConcert 2025 (Matt is the eternally chilled out dude who sings From The Stars), Tethra Jahrak, Lullaby of the Manifold, and (potential spoilers) Roses from the Abyss.

In terms of smaller games, I fell off the wagon and had several all-night benders in Factorio. If you're anywhere near the spectrum, that game is like crack cocaine. I had a lot of fun in Project Wingman and the biggest furball in history, I replayed Star Wars: Republic Commando, and rediscovered my appreciation for games where the player is not the Chosen One. Against all wisdom, I finally played The Mystery Of The Droods. Even knowing what awaited me, I was unprepared for the absolute jank.

Balatro inspired me to download other simple rogue likes on my phone.

I also branched out on console and played both South Park RPGs and Farcry 3.

And somewhere in the middle of all that Oblivion remastered made me play that game all the way through for a fourth time.

Silksong - I had hyped myself up way too much, yet it still delivered. Absolute masterpiece.

Dispatch - I finally understand why people enjoyed Telltale games so much. The writing is great, the characters are interesting, just all around a great experience.

Lies of P - Overture - I finally finished Lies of P & played Overture a few weeks back, after dropping off the game twice in the last years. Wow, that was great! And honestly more emotional than I'd expected.

I built a pc tower for the first time since '01 or '02, and the first game i played was Cyberpunk 2077. A lovely game with some genuinley great characters. I really love Judy.

But that doesn't hold a candle to Deus Ex, which i completed for the first time. What a great title. I must have played the first and part of the second level when it first came out, but the story was new to me.

Also shout out to Drova, a really fun game with tons of nods to the Gothic series. Difficult, but not punishing.

Cruelty Squad was so different. Looks like vaporware created in Duke3d engine, but plays like a modern shooter (kinda).

Uboat

Even though I did not like it at first because of the (optional) management and (also optional) zoomed out cut-out camera view. I loved Silent Hunter and was hoping for a modern take but the above mentioned features of the game kind of clashed with my expectations. Luckily, there is a captain 1st person only mode and walking through your super detailed boat as the captain while listening to 40s radio stations (through mods) and blasting British freighters with well calculated torpedo shots is a lot of fun.

Skyrim VR ( MadGodsMod)

It is always fun to play Skyrim from time to time, but this version has to be my favourite, and after finally having a PC that is beefy enough for VR makes this ancient game one of my highlights this year.

Abiotic Factor, has been a pearl. Survival in a 90's science center complex in the middle of Australia. Good mechanics once you get past the water hump. The story has the right amounts of dread and humor, and the stakes /difficulty / rewards ramp up just right for me.

Oh and still playing noita... Finally cleared it this year

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Dave the Diver
• Another Crab's Treasure
• Cataclismo
• Black Myth: Wukong

(*note some of these were Let's Play's I watched instead of played as combat mechanics like Clair/Wukong don't interest me.)

I also spent a lot of time with an old friend, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Tribes of the East.

Edit/PS: Have to include Tactical Breach Wizards. Hilarious and very different take on the "Xcom-esque" genre. Great characterization and story. Requires a very different style of thinking to master it.

There are two games I never would have considered if I hadn't explored new / different genres from what I usually stick with, 1000xResist and Pentiment.
The latter might be my favourite by a slight margin, but either way I'm so glad I went out of my comfort zone and discovered games which aren't my typical RPGs, action-adventure or shmups.

I'll keep experimenting next year, I might even put together a list of genres or games I'd like to try.

Attending Combo Breaker is the highlight of my year every year. In 2025 I was able to fit Frosty Faustings into my travel budget too. Managed to place 17th in Mystery Bracket both times, and they were very wild bracket runs. I saw Gyakuten Puzzle Bancho and turned to my opponent to utter a sentence no one wants to hear in Mystery: "I'm sorry, I know how to play this game." Also at CB I was able to make it out of pools in Under Night In-Birth II, and it was a hella stacked bracket so I'm pretty happy with that one.

Been focusing more on my mahjong career, attended Riichi Nomi Open and Philadelphia Riichi Open as my first two tournaments. Didn't do so hot though. But of course, when I win it's because I'm skilled, when I lose it was just bad luck.

New arcade opened up near me with modded Maimai, Wacca, and Chunithm cabinets. I told myself I'm never going back to Round 1 again, though R1 does have the new official international Maimai now so I guess that's something. I also got back into Dance Dance Revolution a little, but I'm still not very good.

As for actual new releases, Deltarune is obvious. Kirby Air Riders is a sequel I waited 22 years for, and it was worth the wait. The original is one of my favorite games of all time and I'm blown away by how much higher they raised the bar. Online City Trial is everything childhood me ever dreamed of. And I have to shout out Rhythm Doctor finally exiting Early Access, the final chapter is a wonderful conclusion that gave me a lot of emotions.

• Finishing my first Baldurs Gate 3 campaign after 250 hours.
• Winning my first gold stake run of Balatro.
• Still alive to witness the Ace Combat 8 trailer.

I didn't pick up any new games this year that I can think of despite how good of a year it's apparently been for new releases. I almost exclusively play multiplayer games with lots of replay value, so I don't mind going a few years without a new game. I've mostly played a lot of Helldivers 2, Phasmophobia, Remnant: From the Ashes, Risk of Rain 2, Terraria, and Tabletop Simulator.

Risk of Rain 2 in particular has been a lot of fun recently. It got a new DLC about a month ago, so I guess I did technically get something new. It's easily the best DLC for the game yet, and the new boss fights are a massive step up in quality compared to any others in the game.

The only singleplayer game I've been playing a bit of is Minecraft. I picked up GregTech: New Horizons, a minecraft modpack, a bit earlier this year just to see how far in it I could get before getting bored. GT:NH apparently has a ridiculous average completion time of 2,500 hours of active gameplay for experienced solo players, and I have quite literally never touched a tech mod in my life, so I have no delusions about ever actually finishing it. But it's been fun so far.

• factorio space age: it's the best for a reason, but there are a few things that irk me. There is a "pick any of 3 paths to go first but you have to do all 3" kind of choice. And unlike RPGs you don't really get all that much from each choice, so there isn't much to optimize in that way, it doesn't result in different builds. Space age 2.0.X still has a few issues, the UI for the actual space part is pretty bad and while that's not a space age feature, the way they do logic programming is easy for simple things but takes up too much space and is too difficult to set up for slightly smarter setups, so there is no reward for doing those.
• mindustry (purple planet): It does way better spacial puzzles than factorio. In factorio you have "too much" space or it's too free form. You can pretty much build the way you want. Mindustry has more basic resources you have to mine in specific places, enemies are coming from a distinct direction and you have a lot less space to lay out your factory, so you have to make more choices. I liked that.
• hollow knight: I did see a playthrough years ago and was mad that I spoilered myself. Played it, and had forgotten enough that pretty much everything was new again. Great game, 10/10.
• hollow knight silksong: also played it, has it's moments, ultimately I didn't like it. Writing, mechanics, when stuff is available to find... there are some weird choices and imo regressions from hollow knight. Great soundtrack and it does deserve the goty award it got.

Expedition 33, The game came out on my birthday. I never had the time to get around to playing it. I just downloaded it on PlayStation for their black Friday sale. I am currently only six hours into the game, but I fully get behind the hype and the enjoyment of this game. It does have a high level of skill when it comes to combat but slowly, but surely I’m getting it down and I am enjoying it so far.

Hmm, definitely Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Best game I've played in years. Loved the first one and waited many years for the second game and well, to not be disappointed was great! Now that the DLC's are done, I'm about to start a new run. Really curious what they've done with the monastery.

I play a lot of games every year and nowhere complete anything so whatever I do complete they go into great games I recommend to friends.

Clair obscure expedition 33 was my highlight of the year. Long time since a game made me cry and laugh like this one. Completed chapter 2 but then I had enough but I want to return and look more at this and the next chapter.

No rest for the wicked is in EA but it totally captivated me for a couple of weeks. Had a lot of fun and looking forward to multiplayer and playing with my friends. I love that the devs are following their own vision and doing stuff a little bit different.

Reality Break. This one is a bit odd. I managed to buy the wrong game somehow but this was totally a hidden gem for me. No regrets and they had some big updates after I was done so I plan to return one day.

Metaphor Re Fantazio. My first game like this one and while I never completed it it made a mark.

Heart of the machine will get a small spotlight also. Very different game and something that I really have to visit again when it releases in 1.0.

I guess my 2026 will be a lot of revisits and (hopefully!!) less buying games. Another good overhaul mod of Factorio would save me a lot of money and Guild wars 2 occupies quite a bit of my gaming time.

Dispatch - I've been having a blast playing this. It's my first time playing a game thats more of an interactive TV show but I love the writing and the characters.

I've been trying to get into a bunch of games this year but I keep losing motivation super quickly. The only other game I've managed to finish is Pico Park 2 in coop.

I played mostly Rocket League (again, 10 consecutive wins for time played lol).

But my computer was down done Christmas Eve last year and just got out working again on Halloween. So most of my games this year were solely on the Deck. So the Deck gets an MVP award for being there when I needed it.

That said, the only game I own that doesn't really work on the Deck is Helldivers 2.

I cannot drop down and play literally anything in 30fps. I already have to deal with the 60Hz screen on the Deck, I cannot use anything less (that hasn't been literally designed for it- anything that can run at a higher fps should be. 60 is the absolute rock bottom I will tolerate.

Anyway, I also played a lot of Balatro, Slay the Spire, and REPO. Getting it working satisfactorily would have been impossible on some handhelds, but the grip buttons made it just enough to have access to all inventory slots, sprinting and tumbling. Had to use voice activation without an easy way to use push to talk, but that didn't really bother me.

Tried PEAK, but it doesn't really grab me personally. I still wanna try it on PC tho now that I have it running again, to give it a fair shake. I feel really off balance trying controllers with games meant to be kb/m. Repo felt awkward but playable. And I liked the choir game design enough anyway. But playing Peak while being awkward didn't feel as rewarding. But I wanna give it a go with kb/m.

I played some Hades as well. Still haven't beaten it yet (I've only gotten to the Hades fight twice). That game I actually like better on the Deck or on controller better. Which is kinda what I expected, but it definitely belongs on a controller.

I played through It Takes Two, which was beautiful. Haven't finished Split Fiction yet because my brother keeps being unavailable. I try to tell him to "come be a lesbian with me". Haven't quite finished it yet, but there's no way those 2 don't hook up, right?

Didn't play a lot of anything else, haven't gotten back to work after my last couple years of surgeries so my budget was basically zero.(Supplemented by Steam gifties from real ones) Soon to change this coming year I hope, but given my disability, the depression of being stuck for medical reasons back in a house I had escaped from, the general everything, being poor, and not even having access to my main platform to game on at all, I think I did ok.

If you'll pardon me I gotta go grind some more Rocket League.

This year was a good year for games.

Hades II is a fantastic roguelike that sucked me in for weeks.

I got convinced to play Project Zomboid by a couple friends. I get the hype now.

Project Diablo 2 is an excellent revival of LoD with rebalancing, new features, and controller support. So much fun on the deck.

Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was yet another great addition to the off the rails nonsense that is the Yakuza series.

Yakuza 0 Directors Cut was also a good remaster and English dub. People shit on Yong Yea as Kiryu but I like his performance. Could be because I never played the game in Japanese.

Also spent a lot of time playing Subnautica. An oldie but a goodie, especially with a multiplayer mod.

Yup, this was a good year for gaming.

EDIT: Oh! Can’t forget Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Pretty fun, challenging but sometimes a bit cheap in the challenges. One optional challenge relied on firing a knife through a narrow gap, but there was no reliable way to line yourself up. And since it was timed and at the very end of the challenge, if you mess up you have to do the whole thing all over again. Other than that, really fun.

I got Monster Hunter: Wilds finally, but surprisingly, I have not dropped a lot of time into it despite playing the franchise since the first, with usually 100-250 hours spent on any given title I purchased in the series. TBF, my PS5 controller is in a terrible state right now, forcing me to use K&M, which is genuinely surprising to me that they added support for it in the PS5 to begin with. As far as I know, that is very rare. And while I'm no stranger to K&M, I've never used it for Monster Hunter and I just don't dig it much.

I'd actually have to give my personal GOTY to a game that's not at all new. I've eyed Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous for some time, even though I don't think I've played a traditional CRPG since Planescape: Torment (granted not in 1999, I bought it thru GOG, so it had to be sometime after 2008.) And despite it being a CRPG and me knowing that, I played it via Playstation+ on PS5... with my controller, which still had stick drift at the time but not as bad. I sunk between 200-250 hours into it and I still have not beat the damn thing. I kept remaking my party as I grew more familiar with the game's system. My last and favorite being subclassing all my regulars to have dinosaur pets. Game went on sale for like 6 or 7 bucks a little while ago so I just went ahead and bought it permanently. I'm sure I'll revisit it again just like I do Elder Scrolls and Borderlands franchises.

Finishing alan wake 1 and American nightmare.

So many chainsawmen.

Worth it though. I played Control first, so it was awesome seeing the continuation backwards.

I‘ve sorted my library by release date, and there are five games which have released this year in it that aren‘t just remastered or early access which finally hit 1.0. Of those five I‘ve played three. Also of those five, three are indie games.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Poorly received across „enthusiasts“ as too easy of a MH game. I personally liked it a lot. The wounds mechanic is fun, focus mode is good but too much, performance is absolutely horrendous. One of the things I’ve always hated with MH are those stiff ass animations that made you miss combos by a cm, focus mode helps with that but now you can just 180 during a swing which is overkill IMO. I miss tracking monsters - which made me feel more like I‘m actually hunting game - as well as wallbanging them. The current mounting feels less interesting overall. 150 hrs played and they were a lot of fun with friends.

PEAK

Probably my GOTY (cause I didn‘t play much from this year anyway, see above lol). There‘s only one thing that bums me out: The game should have DLSS/FSR cause it‘s really heavy God knows why and the internal upscaler is meh. Otherwise, the most fun I had in a multiplayer game in a long time. Did ascension 7, unlocked all the stuff, gobble up every update, great fun with friends (also if solo but less so). 110 hrs, amazing game for less than ten bucks. Fuck those sencient tornados.

Mario Kart World

Idk, as the successor to MK8 it‘s kinda mid in comparisson. The feeling of speed, the racing flow, they‘re kinda missing. Lots of uninteresting filler tracks. Idk why this had to be an open world game. Some of its soul died for that. I got gold on all the cups but haven‘t touched it since. Pro tip: If you have trouble at max diff, stop drifting. The game ups the difficulty (read: rubberbanding) PER DRIFT, and it stacks up across the whole cup!

I left gaming. That's the highlight. I'm yearning to get back tho. But my laptop is kinda struggling to play games so yeah I might be away from them for a long time ig.