My Favorite Games of 2025
Photo Credit: AdHoc Studio.
2025 was an excellent year for games and I spent a lot of time on stream and off playing around 120 of them this year! We had a lot of heavy hitters and some duds, but I had so much fun diving into variety! Here are a few of my favorite games that I’ve played this year!
Dispatch
(AdHoc Studio) Steam | PlayStation
I had a blast with this game! In just 6 episodes AdHoc Studio made me care about an entirely new pantheon of heroes. I enjoyed how decision driven the story was, but the real star and meat of the action was the dispatching game. Sending heroes out to complete tasks helped me understand the hero’s powers more effectively,the buddy system highlighted their synergies and brought about some interesting dialog interactions that had me laughing out loud. This game actually had some really funny writing chops, an excellent cast of voice actors, and I'm hoping for a Season 2 soon!
Favorite Character: Toss-up Between Beef & Golem
Favorite Song: Fart Barf - Homeless in Heathrow
(Giant Squid Studios) Steam | Epic Games | PlayStation
The need to skate through sand on a sword wasn’t exactly on my radar until I played Sword of the Sea. Playing as a resurrected warrior from a war long ago, you skate around expanses of desert on, you guessed it, a sword. As you start engaging with the game to bring water back to this barren planet, the visuals become more surreal and stunning with aquatic life floating in the air and guiding you to unlock other pathways underneath the rippling dunes and waves.
One of my favorite stages came later in the game where I was surfing in a night time version of the world with large pagoda-like structures all around you. As I completed the puzzles in the structures, the star started falling from the sky and into the water. Really beautiful sequence and was lucky to have a former dev in the stream when I played through this game. Good one session game (~ 3 hours) for those looking.
Favorite Character: Giant Dolphin
Favorite Battle: Ping Pong
(Playables / Panic) Steam | Epic Games | App Store | PlayStation | Nintendo
In this game you play as a fly with a 72 second lifespan (times vary by country’s life expectancy) trying to complete 10 tasks in each of the game’s four stages. Highly surreal and irreverently funny, the graphics look like they were drawn in MS Paint and the interactions with the tasks were punny and unforgettable. Another short session game (~2 hours) that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Wrapping up this game gives you a secret surprise, too (NO SPOILERS)!
Favorite Character: The Fly
Favorite Task: “Explore Sexuality” from the Museum Level
(Dotemu) Steam | PlayStation | Nintendo
This year I rekindled a love of beat-em-up’s, and Absolum was a huge reason for this. Absolum is a high fantasy rogue-lite beat-em-up with beautiful animation and responsive controls. In an earlier age, Absolum would have fit in perfectly in an arcade setting. While I haven’t played with anyone, either in couch co-op or online, this game feels like a perfect Saturday afternoon activity where you have nothing going on except for slugging down bosses.
Dotemu also put out Marvel Cosmic Invasion this year, which is making its way up my backlog of games.
Favorite Character: Galandra
Favorite Ritual: Wind, Tornado Strike
Backlog Favorite:
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
(EA / Bioware) Steam | PlayStation | XBOX | EA
This didn’t come out this year, but quietly in the moments after streams or on days where I just need to relax with a good videogame, I’ve been playing through the trilogy. I’m currently almost to the end of 2, which I have squeezed almost every drop out of. I am looking forward to hopping into 3, even with the mixed reception on the finale. This has been nice to play for my own experience, almost like tucking in and reading a book before bed.
Favorite Character: Tali'Zorah
Best Shep: Fem Shep all day!
Honorable Mentions:
Avowed
(Obsidian / XBOX Game Studios) Steam | XBOX | Battle.net
I had a bunch of fun with Avowed across a few sessions earlier this year. With Clair Obscur and other games that came out shortly after, it got lost in the shuffle, but is one I want to go back to in the future. Fun Action RPG, though, for those looking to scratch that itch.
(Heart Machine / Arc Games) Steam
I meant to get back to playing this after they’ve made a few updates, but sadly Heart Machine has ended development on the game and made layoffs to the team. I liked the core concept, but typically ease off early access games until they get their full release so I don’t burn myself out on it, but I guess now would be as good a time as any to hop in and celebrate the dev’s work.
I hope you enjoy this list and maybe find something that slipped under your radar. Cheers to 2026 being another banger of a year in games!
