🔗 Share this article

Well, how did you experience 2025 in your home? Could it be described as all as good as you pretended on social media? Packed with academic success for the children and wild dress-up gatherings for the adults? Or was it a sea of disappointment with only occasional fun flotsam? And was any of it genuine, or is everyone now digitally altered synthetic personas with unrealistic smiles?

I've corralled the family together, whether they wanted to or not, to discuss the crucial thing in a calendar year: which video games we played the most. Without further ado:

Title First Daughter Played the Most

Pikmin

"Can’t you pick just one?"

"This isn't my games column."

Meanwhile, on mobile, she’s been playing Cityscapes and "attempting to locate decent healthcare."

"In the game?"

"In the actual world."

Release Middle Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I refuse to play games on my phone." He took umbrage that I suggested it. Point taken.

Title Youngest Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

Her goal is to get into drama school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was tackling Resident Evil. She also went on in great detail about her accomplishments on The Sims, where her character has a successful utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her older sibling has in real life.

Game the Wife 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 marathon not a sprint for her. Her mobile diversion: something called Woodle, where you have to remove pins.

Game I Laughed at My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Every time I see my 21-year-old son playing Minecraft, I set about him like a cross between a relentless heckler. When he complains, I reply that I am doing this to toughen him up so he can mature and play games for mature audiences. It’s a very Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Notable Gaming Family Member This Year

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

She was the clear winner for this one. She is unstoppable. Superior than I was at classic rhythm games 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 insanely well-crafted strategy digital pastime, with its constantly evolving 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 trap you with fomo-fuelled microtransactions. So love turned to hate halfway through the year and it got uninstalled.

Title I Wish I Had Played More

Doom: The Dark Ages

Stunning reinvention of a iconic franchise. Captivating atmosphere from the beginning. I wish I could eviscerate my issues so effectively in real life.

Game I Wish I Had Played More (Cerebral Edition)

Blue Prince

I decline to rush this beautiful, unique game and I just was short on the time or headspace to give it what it needed earlier this year. With relatives staying over the festive period, I will be playing this in the early morning after family time.

Title That Was a Lifesaver When I Needed It

Balatro

I'm aware Balatro was the previous year's surprise hit, but I was late to it. And it is incredible. It just gets every single thing right. Crazy Poker is a brilliant concept, but the powers behind the different wild cards are so creative it has become a game I could play at any hour. Throw in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an absolute pinnacle of gaming. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a small space for hours just so I have an opportunity but play it.

Game I Got the Most Criticism For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I received a wave of criticism when I wrote about how a specific bug in another game soured the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of overall polish – which I appreciated even more after slogging through Outer Worlds 2. So thank you to the reader who took the time to send a message to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "missing the point". I present that in the exact way, because I acknowledge the engagement, and she is obviously an excellent judge of character.

Title Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Sure. Give me a brutally difficult Metroidvania-esque thing and provide little guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "explore". How delightful. I acknowledge that it is beautiful and is ideal if you are into challenging games, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I want less of in my adulthood. I was around back when many games were like this, and my patience is gone. It was okay when I was a kid, but so was many less comfortable things.

Biggest Gaming Controversy of 2025

Toss-up between questionable alliances that sparked debate, and expensive game releases. Both morally indefensible 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 make interesting names bellowed from the garden at tea time.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. No joke. I don’t know if it’s because of button mashing or doomscrolling, but it is sore like the mines of sulphur in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs protected 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 cows come home.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.