🔗 Share this article Our Dominik Diamond Unofficial Game of the Year Roundup for 2025 Well, how did you experience this year in your family? Did it seem entirely positive as you pretended on online? Full of academic success for the children and riotous costume gatherings for the grownups? Or was it a swamp of frustration with only occasional fun flotsam? And was any of it genuine, or are we all AI-generated synthetic personas with unrealistic smiles? I've corralled the family for a chat, ready or not, to debate the crucial thing in any given year: what titles we were obsessed with the most. Let's get started: Release First Daughter Played the Most Pikmin "Can’t you pick just one?" "It’s not my games column." On her phone, she's invested time in Cityscapes and "searching for adequate healthcare." "Digitally?" "In real life." Title Second Son Played the Most Overwatch "I have no interest in games on my phone." He was offended that I even asked. Fair enough. Release Youngest Daughter Played the Most Resident Evil Biohazard She's attempting to get into drama school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was playing Resident Evil. She also elaborated in great detail about her achievements on The Sims, where her character has a thriving utopia with far better healthcare than her older sibling has outside the game. Release the Spouse Played the Most Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time She started the year at sixty percent completion and ended it at eighty-two percent. It's a long haul not a sprint for her. Her mobile diversion: something called Woodle, where you have to remove pins. Release I Found Amusing That My Kids for Still Playing Minecraft Whenever I see my 21-year-old son playing Minecraft, I set about him like a cross between a classic comedy bit. When he objects, I reply that I am engaging in this to prepare him so he can be a man and play games for adults. It’s a very Scottish father/son relationship. Most Notable Gaming Family Member of the Year Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024 There was no contest for this one. She is unstoppable. Superior than I was at classic rhythm games in my prime. Title I Played the Most Marvel Snap No other game compared to the hours I spent on this insanely well-crafted card game digital pastime, with its ever-changing range of cards and game variations. Game I Wish I Had Played Less Marvel Snap The downside about games that endlessly add to their range is you have a moment of clarity and understand it is all just an attempt to suck you into fomo-fuelled microtransactions. So affection became resentment halfway through the year and it went into the bin. Game I Wish I Had Played More Doom: The Dark Ages Glorious reinvention of a iconic franchise. Captivating atmosphere from the off. I wish I could dispatch my demons so effectively in real life. Game I Wish I Had Played More (Cerebral Edition) Blue Prince I refuse to rush this gorgeous, distinctive game and I just was short on the mental bandwidth to give it what it required earlier this year. With relatives staying over the festive period, I plan to dive into this in the wee small hours after family time. Game That Saved My Soul When I Needed It Balatro I know Balatro was last year's breakout game, but I was a late adopter. And it is remarkable. It just gets absolutely everything right. Its gameplay loop is a brilliant concept, but the powers behind the different wild cards are so imaginative it has become a game I would happily play at any hour. Add in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an absolute pinnacle of gaming. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a elevator for hours just so I have the perfect excuse but play it. Game I Got the Most Criticism For Criticising Outer Worlds 2 I endured a minor pile-on when I critiqued how a specific bug in another game damaged the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of art, sound, acting – which I appreciated even more after slogging through Outer Worlds 2. So my appreciation goes out to the commenter who took the time to write in to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "bitter, confused resentment". I share that verbatim, because I acknowledge the engagement, and she is obviously an astute judge of character. Title Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get Hollow Knight: Silksong Fine. Give me a punishingly tough exploration-focused thing and leave me without guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "look around". What a joy. I acknowledge that it has great art and is ideal if you are into challenging games, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I desire less in my adulthood. I was around back when many games were like this, and my patience is gone. It was fine when I was a kid, but so was many questionable things. Biggest Gaming Scandal of 2025 Close call between business deals that sparked debate, and expensive game releases. Both ethically dubious and repugnant. Games I Would Name My Children After, Were I I Was Ever Crazy Enough to Have More Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names called from the back door at tea time. Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming Right Thumb Joint. Honestly. I don’t know if it’s because of console gaming or doomscrolling, but it burns like anything in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs looked after back in the 90s. 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 wait patiently until the end of days. Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036 The Witcher 4.