{"id":378217,"date":"2025-12-30T17:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/378217\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:15:11","slug":"zack-zwiezens-top-10-games-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/378217\/","title":{"rendered":"Zack Zwiezen’s Top 10 Games Of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026.And we\u2019re back. Sorry about last year. Our previous owners, G\/O Media, were a pack of idiots<\/a> with more money than brains, who decided to stop anyone at Kotaku from writing personal top ten lists<\/a>. Why? Pretty simple, really: They had no idea what they were doing and nearly destroyed this place<\/a>. Anyway, they\u2019re all gone now, and I\u2019m still here. So let\u2019s talk about my 10 favorite games of 2025!<\/p>\n

This 2025 list was an odd one to put together. I started with over 20 games that I played this year that I liked a lot. But whittling this list down to 10 was shockingly easy. Nothing felt like it had to be on here or screamed \u201cZack\u2019s Favorite Game!\u201d It was a year in which I played so many good games<\/a>, but few that stuck with me in the same way Control did in 2019, or Half-Life: Alyx the following year.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t waste any more time. You can go scroll to the list now and nod in agreement with some picks and shake your head at others.\u00a0 As usual, this list is in no particular order until the very end, where I\u2019ll drop my personal favorite game of the year! (And<\/a> here<\/a> are<\/a> my past<\/a> lists<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Oh, wait, one more thing: If you scroll all the way to the end, you\u2019ll find my top 10 games of 2024. Take that, Jimbo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Battlefield 6 \"AEA \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n

Yeah, I wish EA\u2019s big online FPS had some bigger maps. And, yup, there are still some vehicle balancing issues that need fixing. And, okay, sure, Redsec isn\u2019t great, and the best thing I can say about the single-player campaign is that it\u2019s short. But whatever, none of that has stopped me from investing nearly 150 hours into Battlefield 6<\/a> since it launched in October. This is the kind of chaotic but tactical combat that I love in multiplayer games. The kind of online shooter where you can spend all night driving around in tanks and then the next day grab an SMG and clear rooms with your friends. And then a tank blows up the room you were in, and the building collapses, and you scramble outside into a nearby jeep and escape, only to be sniped by a bastard on the other side of the map. It\u2019s Battlefield, baby, and I love it.<\/p>\n

Routine \"\"\u00a9\u00a0Lunar Software <\/p>\n

When I wrapped Routine, a creepy photorealistic sci-fi horror game<\/a>, I liked it a lot, but I wasn\u2019t convinced it would make my game of the year list. But then it did something not many games can do: It stuck with me. It has an incredibly oppressive and scary atmosphere that evolves in some interesting ways over the course of its runtime, before ramping up the horror to 11. And it does all of this while not being filled with cheap jump scares or bathtubs of blood. The fact that it\u2019s all set it in mundane but incredibly realistic spaces, like kitchens and offices, just makes it all the easier to fully lose yourself in the experience. One scare in particular shook me up so bad that I\u2019ll never forget it.<\/p>\n

Avowed \"\"\u00a9 Obsidian Entertainment <\/p>\n

I will forever be a sucker for big RPGs that let me wander aimlessly and discover new quests. Bethesda\u2019s RPGs have been doing that for decades. Obsidian\u2019s Avowed<\/a> smartly condenses the Bethesda formula while replacing some of that lost bloat with well-written companions and interesting hand-crafted sidequests. The end result is an RPG that lacks the simulation elements of Skyrim and the scale of Fallout 4, but features memorable characters and moments that stood out in a year filled with both.<\/p>\n

THPS 3+4 \"\"\u00a9 Activision <\/p>\n

Few games feel as good as a well-made Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater title. And this year\u2019s remake of THPS 3 and THPS 4 is very well-made indeed. This is just a perfect little package of skateboarding shenanigans. Yes, I know people got mad about the open-world quests being removed from THPS 4, but I\u2019ve always preferred the two-minute format for these classic Tony Hawk titles. Leave the big spaces and quests to Underground or Wasteland, y\u2019know? That minor quibble aside, what Iron Galaxy created with THPS 3+4 is marvelous. It looks like I remember those old games looking, plays fantastically, and features enough challenges and extra content to keep you grinding and flipping for many late nights. Now, someone convince Activision to remake Tony Hawk\u2019s Underground, please.<\/p>\n

Despelote \"\"\u00a9 Panic <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care much for soccer. But I loved Despelote, a game that uses soccer as a throughline connecting different moments from a young boy\u2019s life as he grows up in Quito during Ecuador\u2019s qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. This is a story about being a kid, dreaming big, getting into trouble, lying to your parents, growing up, and going back to where you once lived, only to find a much different place. You\u2019ll be able to finish this one in a single extended sitting, and by the end, you\u2019ll likely be won over by its storytelling, voice acting, visuals, and heart.<\/p>\n

Dispatch \"Dispatch\u00a9 AdHoc Studio \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n

I played a lot of Telltale narrative games (like Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead) back in the day and enjoyed them, but I wasn\u2019t sure if that formula would work again in 2025. I mean, I\u2019m not sure it really worked back then either, but the writing was strong enough to win most folks over. Dispatch<\/a>, a narrative-driven episodic game about a superhero agency, shows that with some tweaks and upgrades, the Telltale formula can still kick ass. Strong voice acting, a focus on narrative over fluff gameplay, and some truly funny moments help this strange workplace superhero comedy succeed in a way that, I\u2019d argue, most Telltale games didn\u2019t. Now, where\u2019s season 2?<\/p>\n

Mafia: The Old Country \"\"\u00a9 2K <\/p>\n

When I sit down to play a game, I don\u2019t always want to invest 400 hours into an RPG or grind away filling up meters or fight random people online. Sometimes, I just want a linear, 10-to-15-hour cinematic experience featuring solid gameplay and gorgeous visuals. Mafia: The Old Country is that kind of game<\/a>. The kind of game that we don\u2019t get much of anymore. A big-budget AAA linear action adventure game that lacks crafting, RPG skill trees, or other guff. It\u2019s just the classic mobster story of a dude who goes from nothing to everything, but it all costs him so much. Except this is set in 1904 Italy and ditches Tommy Guns and big cities for rolling fields and horses. The end result is beautiful.<\/p>\n

South of Midnight \"\"\u00a9 Compulsion Games <\/p>\n

If South of Midnight\u2019s combat was better, it might have been able to slide into my top spot because everything else around the action-platformer is just that damn good. South of Midnight is a stop-motion-style adventure through a magical version of the South that deals head-on with topics like racism and slavery. But it also celebrates the unique culture that exists in the deep southern portion of the United States. And what screenshots of this game don\u2019t reveal is that it\u2019s packed with some of the best music of 2025, with songs that made me dance and others that made me cry. If you want to feel something, play South of Midnight.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jurassic World Evolution 3 \"\"\u00a9 Universal <\/p>\n

One night, while playing Jurassic World Evolution 3<\/a>, I spent nearly three hours creating a massive paddock filled with various dinosaurs and a jeep tour. When I realized I had spent that much time on one part of the map, I felt a bit weird. Then I burned another hour while making that paddock look amazing and ensuring the adult and baby dinos inside were happy and healthy. A great game doesn\u2019t have to tell some epic story or be filled with important themes and ideas. A great game can just take what came before it, expand on all of that, and then offer you a newly perfected prehistoric park builder that will suck away weeks of your life if you aren\u2019t careful. This is one of the best simulation games around, and easily the best Jurassic Park game ever made.<\/p>\n

And my top game of 2025\u2026The Outer Worlds 2 \"A\u00a9 Obsidian Entertainment <\/p>\n

I went back and forth on this a lot. I bet if you ask me in like two months what my top game of 2025 is, I might say something else. Truly, this was a strange year. But, I must admit that the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that The Outer Worlds 2 (from Avowed studio Obsidian) was my game of the year.<\/p>\n

As someone who has put an embarrassing number of hours into Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4, I\u2019m always craving an RPG that can provide similar experiences. The original Outer Worlds got close, but The Outer Worlds 2 finally nails and then improves on the open-ended FPS RPG action found in those past Fallout games. Gone are the stilted conversations from Fallout and the wonky combat and visuals. Instead, The Outer Worlds 2<\/a> looks marvelous, feels like a joy to play, and still makes sure to include enough quirky moments and silly bits to satisfy any Fallout fan. Obsidian even included an in-game radio with ads and songs just like Bethesda\u2019s Fallout games.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to come back to The Outer Worlds 2 in a few years, after forgetting most of it, and replay it as a new character. And to me, that\u2019s the ultimate proof that a game has done something right. Now, one more thing\u2026<\/p>\n

Zack\u2019s Top 10 Games Of 2024 Astro Bot Silent Hill 2 Star Wars Outlaws Helldivers 2 Balatro\u00a0 Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thank Goodness You\u2019re Here Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Dungeons of Hinterberg Indiana Jones and the Great Circle<\/a> \u2013 My Favorite Game Of 2024! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2026.And we\u2019re back. Sorry about last year. Our previous owners, G\/O Media, were a pack of idiots with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[172318,20441,185111,74,27757],"class_list":{"0":"post-378217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-avowed","9":"tag-battlefield-6","10":"tag-kotaku-2025","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-the-outer-worlds-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}