GAMES I PLAYED IN 2025
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- I wanted to wait until this game was out of early access before I bought it, but I just couldn't help it. After playing the demo, the game was constantly on my mind. It's an extraction shooter that takes place in a world where a war has been raging on for so long that no one even knows why they're fighting it anymore. You play as a scavenger trying to live off of whatever scraps you can find, digging through rubble while giant war machines fight all around you. The art direction is phenomenal, like a living Beksiński painting. It's really unfinished though, very much "early access". But I already love it, and it can only get better from here. The devs seem pretty cool too, based on what I saw of them in their Q&A videos.
- No surprise that this game ended up being very addictive to me. I dumped 140 hours into it over only two months. Jesus christ. AND I STILL HAVEN'T BEAT THE (true) FINAL BOSS! That being said, though, now that I've actually played this game, I can confidently say that Novus Orbis is better.
- NOW WE'RE COOKIN! A great return to form after their last subpar DLC. Hell, it might even be better than the base game. My only real complaints are that the ending is a bit sudden and that the DLC as a whole could've been longer. But whatever, it was still great. High production value, lots of enemy variety, it advanced the story in a satisfying way. I'm tellin ya, people are sleeping on this game.
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- I played the demo for this game last year. But now it's in early access, so I jumped back into it. And yeah, it's still good. Like I said, I really think it's a better verson of Slay the Spire. It took all the good things from that game and then added its own unique twists to make it even better. So if you're reading this and you like Slay the Spire, please, give this game a chance. It's made by a solo first-time developer and it could really use some exposure.
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- Crazy-ass unique amazing game made for a "boss rush" themed game jam. It won first place. It really is a breath of fresh air, both stylistically and mechanically. It's an FPS where you use a grappling hook to cling onto bosses, swinging around them at high speed and blasting them with your gun. The art was done by world4jack, an artist that I was already a fan of, the boss designs are so fun and colorful and surreal. Awesome game, you don't even need to install it, it's literally just a self-contained exe file. And it's free too. I think this same team is working on a larger FPS too, it involves like a hacky sack and stuff? If it's anything like this game, it'll be fucking great.
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- After playing and enjoying the hell out of Armored Core 6 when it first came out, I decided to look into the rest of the series. I knew that 6 was pretty different from the older games, but from what I saw online, a lot of people recommended For Answer as the next game to play after 6. And yeah, I loved it just as much as I did Fires of Rubicon. I guess I'm into mecha as a hobby now, I've even started buying and building Armored Core model kits. The one thing that let me down a bit about this game was how the story didn't feel as satisfying or memorable as the one in 6 did. But that's okay, because this game honestly has better mechanincs I think, or at least more mechanical complexity, which I like. And the music in this one was definitely better too. Unfortunately, it is no longer available for purchase anywhere anymore, and it's trapped on the PS3. BUT... it emulates VERY well and is easy to set up.
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- A first person survival horror game with Silent Hill graphics, Forbidden Siren cutscenes, and Condemned: Criminal Origins combat. Plus it takes place in Feudal Japan and most of the enemies are based off of Yokai, with in-game descriptions describing their real life cultural origins (I love games that inadvertently become edutainment). It suffers from being too vague, often leaving players wondering what the hell they're supposed to do next. Most of my time spent playing it was wandering around hallways over and over again hoping I could find something new. But regardless, it's one of my favorite games I've played this year. I've heard it be compared to King's Field, but I haven't played that game, so I can't say how good it is in comparison. All I know is that it's really cool tonally and if you don't mind some confusion and clunkiness, it works well as an indie horror game.
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- A first person horror game with a whimsical atmosphere, a neat "arts and crafts" artstyle, and music that sometimes reminds me of Over the Garden Wall. It's mostly a walking sim where you try to avoid monsters while crouching and hiding, like Soma. While it's not too long, less than ten hours, I still felt that it dragged a bit. But only because of the lack of new mechanics introduced/repetitive use of the existing mechanics. I also felt that the writing was lacking... something? The whole thing is a half-metaphorical, half-literal exploration of the struggles faced when trying finish a big creative project, or to live life as a creative type. And personally, it felt to me like it didn't quite deliver the profound insights that it seemed to want to. But that might just be me not getting it. Either way, it's short and charming, I recommend playing this around Halloween.
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- This is a game made by the Warframe devs, it's pretty early in development and I don't think it's open access yet. I haven't actually played enough of it to be writing my thoughts on it probably, but I dunno, I figured I'd include it here anyways. So far, I find it to be a pleasant little fantasy game. I haven't engaged with all its mechanics yet and have been treating it like a singleplayer experience, so this is really a surface-level impression more than anything. It has really nice art direction and music, good animations in the cutscenes, and a refreshing naturalistic theme to its narrative. The combat is fairly simple and a bit easy, though. Still in its infancy, I plan to check in on it every so often.
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- Sci-fi first person point and click from 2014. It starts off almost like a grounded detective game, but then the narrative goes kinda wild the further on you go. I'll admit the mid section of the game had me kind of losing interest for a bit, but then the ending area pulled me right back in. I don't want to spoil it, but the last part of this game really is a crazy surprise, or at least to me it was. Other than that, it has some nice pre-rendered 3D graphics and a few clever puzzles (as well as some stinkers). A fun little point and click.
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- My brother has always been big into these games, and I remember watching him play some of the older games in the series when we were teens and thinking they seemed neat. Since everybody was hyping this one up, saying it was a return to form and all that, I decided to play the open beta when it came out. I remember watching videos where people were talking about how great the graphics were and how impressive the environmental destruction was, so I was excited to see it for myself. And I dunno man, the graphics were fine but kinda drab, and the destruction seemed fairly limited. Like, I hardly noticed it when I was playing. Still, the beta was good. I put like eight hours into it. But honestly that was all I needed to see, after that I was like "nah I'm good" and decided not to buy the full game. I guess it's just not really for me? Still happy for Battlefield fans getting a good entry into the series after several disappointments.
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- Holy shit this game is awesome! A free arena shooter with a hundreds of maps and a ton of fun weapons. It has a janky, unique style and a badass DnB soundtrack. It's fast paced with smooth movement, sliding, wall jumping, and some weapons let you double jump with their recoil. The matches are low player count (4 max) and the maps are small, rounds often last less than a minute and then the next one starts within seconds. You cycle through maps and weapons at a crazy rate, I guess it's optimized for our fried attention spans. The weapon selection really satisfies my personal tastes because it has a lot of strong single-shot or bolt action rifles, a weapon archetype often neglected in shooters. It's free (no microtransactions or battlepass either) and casual and I haven't met any asshole players, it's intense but loads of fun. Highly recommend.
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- One of the games I got for free from the Epic Gamer Store's weekly free giveaways. It's a short, simple FPS game that takes a lot of inspiration from Half-Life 2. Apparently most people take like four hours to beat it, so I decided to play on the hardest difficulty to extend the playtime a bit. But, uh, I didn't know that meant you die in like two or three hits. So it took me more like seven hours. I actually really liked this one, it managed to have a pretty creepy atmosphere at certain points and the sci-fi elements of the story were intriguing. I've heard some people complain it was "too simple", but I thought it worked well for the length that it was. There's a sequel in development that looks pretty tonally different, I'll probably check it out.
GAMES I WANT TO PLAY NEXT YEAR
Games I own but haven't played yet (AKA my Backlog)
- Didn't get around to this one this year, honestly it's not at the top of my priority list for 2026 either. I think it's the length of the game that's scaring me off. At least I've managed to stay unspoiled.
- Also didn't play this one yet, and now EGS gave away the sequel for free too. I do actually plan to finish these before the end of 2026, I think they'll be up my alley.
- I honestly forgot I owned this one lol. But it's an anti-gravity racer, and I love that kind of game, so surely I'll check it out next year. Unless I get distracted by a bunch of other games again.
- Still sitting here from last year's list. This is another one that's not top priority, so don't be surprised if it's still on this list at the end of 2026.
- I'm actually halfway through this game right now, but not finished yet. Will right my thoughts on it when I'm done.
- Very excited to dig into this one, seems like a smart take on the first person puzller genre.
- As an enjoyer of Sloclap's first release, Absolver, I've always meant to try out this game. Finally bought it during the Steam winter sale.
- Metal Gear Rising and my replay of Lost Planet 2 this year left me hungry for more wacky 7th gen Japanese third-person action games. I know this one will scratch the itch.
- I've known about this weird-ass game for years, it's almost as old as me. But I've never played it. I'm really not sure what to expect, or if I'll even like it, but I have to try this shit. I know I have a tolerance for cryptic and clunky games, so hopefully I can figure it out.
- An EGS giveaway. It's a game I wouldn't have gotten otherwise but I liked the Dishonored games, and this is like the last game Arkane made before they wen kaput (Redfall does not exist) so I should check it out eventually.
- Another free one from EGS. I've known about this game for a long time, I guess I'll finally check it out. Will be nice when I'm in the mood for a cute point and click.
- I played this one's demo in the Haunted PS1 demo disc. I never expected it to be given away on EGS the same year it released, but I'll gladly play the full version. Will probably get to it around Halloween next year.
Games that are out but I don't own yet
- Still haven't gotten to it. One day, though! One day!
- Same as above. I just need to clear up the games I do own before I get to more.
- I need to clear up my backlog before I get addicted to yet another deckbuilder roguelike that'll eat up hundreds of hours of my time.
- Another 90s point and click that I've been meaning to check out, and now it has a Steam release.
- I feel like I would never normally play this type of game, but the premise and art style appeal to me. Not to mention, it's been getting plenty of praise. I'm intrigued.
- Found out about this through an Iron Pineapple video, it looks super fun. Also damn, it's really cheap too. Any game with bug characters (that actually look somewhat bug-like, ya hear that, Hollow Knight??) is cool to me.
- Never played a game like this, but I have a feeling I might enjoy this one. The "product assembly puzzle" idea is capturing my interest in a way that Spacechem never did, we'll see how much I end up enjoying it.
- I spent so long watching Jerma play this game, lol. Normally I have streams on in the background while I do something else, but I was glued to the screen for this one. There's something I loved about it. I gotta try it for myself, it seems like a very unique and andrenaline-pumping game.
Games that will (probably) come out in 2026
- I had this on my list last year, but it hasn't come out yet. I'm still incredibly excited for it.
- Oh my god, I can't believe it's finally happening. I've literally been waiting for part three of this series for more than half my life, no exaggeration. I already played the closed beta (and streamed the demo, but I don't think anyone saw that, lol), it's really cool to see a childhood favorite flash game of mine get remade. Unbelievably excited for this one, most anticipated game of 2026.
- I've found myself wishing racing games could get a little more creative - almost every one that comes out these days seems too grounded in reality. Where's all the cool sci-fi ones? Screamer sounds exactly like what I've been hungering for, with great looking fictional car designs, some unique mechanics, and a fully fledged story mode. With anime cutscenes I guess? I'm actually pretty excited for this one, I hope it turns out good.
GAMES I PLAYED IN 2024
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- It was neat I guess. I played it twice to see if I could find any secrets, I didn't. I watched a video on it after and saw I missed a ton of stuff. I think I just wasn't prepared to dig as much as the game wanted me to.
- Odd choice to take a pretty good Bioshock-style FPS and make a CSGO wall surfing DLC set in Candyland. While it was fun, it's a disappointment compared to the main game and first DLC.
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- I couldn't get very far in because the game just kept crashing over and over. I tried so many fixes but none of them worked. A shame, because this game seems really interesting and I want to finish it one day.
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- You know I loved this one because I made an entry for it on the main Gamerzone page. It's probably my personal game of the year? And they've sinced fixed all my problems with it in post-launch updates. Very excited to see what the devs do next!
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- I loved Hot Wheels as a kid. Recently I've been getting more into racing games and thought I would love this. The driving controls were a bit too easy even with the difficulty turned up, after only 3 hours of playing I got an achievement that said "raced on all tracks", and also the anime comic story cutscenes are kinda cringey. So I refunded it and bought the next game on the list for a quarter of the price.
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- It cost way less than Hot Wheels and I loved it SO MUCH MORE. After getting into Wipeout via the playable browser port someone made, I was itching for more. This game is incredible. It's basically bootleg Wipeout but somehow better than the original? Huge recommend for antigravity racing fans.
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- The Myst series is one of my all time favorites. But I didn't like Myst 4 so much, and I only heard negative things about 5 so I put off playing it until now. Turns out it's not THAT bad. I actually liked it more than 4, funnily enough. It had its moments, Laki'ahn had some fun puzzles, and Todelmer just looked so damn cool.
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- Another game with an entry on the main page. Also another of my favorites this year. I still hop on to play some of the bonus game modes every once in a while. The world needs more bug games. (And less buggy ones.)
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- What can I say, everybody loves Elden Ring. Me too. This isn't just a DLC, it's an expansion pack. I'm pretty sure I put close to 100 hours into it, this is basically a whole-ass sequel to the main game. I wished more devs handled DLC like FromSoft does, then maybe I wouldn't mind paying extra after I already bought the base game.
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- A remake of the second game in the Myst series. Ever since first discovering these games, I always fantasized about how it would feel to actually walk around in their worlds instead of looking at the pre-rendered images you see in the games. This remake was basically the fulfillment of a childhood wish for me. It's so perfectly done, and the original atmosphere was left intact. Absolutely incredible game. This could also be my game of the year I think.
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- This year I found out that I like roguelikes. Especially deckbuilding roguelikes, that shit is like crack-cocaine in game form. One of my earlier forays into the genre was this free, unfinished game. You're a cowboy and you collect bullets with different powers. The "cards" you play are the six bullets in your revolver, which are played in a set order (revolver rotation direction). It's a clever take on the genre, and a neat little hidden gem.
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- I remember watching my brother play this when it first came out. I remember all the quoteable cutscenes, all the great music, all the flashy moments. It's no wonder that, when I finally got around to playing myself, I fucking loved it. Still working my way through the VR missions. I wish more games took inspiration from its combat system - even how it uses quicktime events is noteworthy I think!
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- The sequel to one of my beloved lesser-known indie picks, Machinika Museum. Sadly, this game misses the mark in my opinion. The gameplay is the same, but instead of working as a museum researcher reverse-engineering alien tech that arrives in crates, you are aimlessly stumbling through a spaceship solving basic puzzles that feel like they have no reason to be there. The premise alone was what made the first game special, without that it's just... average.
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- This was the game that REALLY made me realize how much I like deckbuilder roguelikes. I haven't played Slay the Spire yet, but this game is basically the same thing. And man, it's only a demo, but, uhh... Steam says I have 117 hours in it. So I guess that means I liked it. It's made by a single person, a first time dev, which just makes it more impressive. Seriously, check it out if you like this kind of game.
GAMES I WANT TO PLAY NEXT YEAR
Games that I own but haven't played yet
- Now that I know I like this kind of game, it's time to play the OG. My girlfriend gifted it to me for Christmas, I have a feeling I'm going to lose a loooot of time to it in 2025. Hahahahaha... oh boy.
- A point and click that looks really nice. A solid sci-fi story with good user reviews. Will be a nice time I think.
- I got this shit for free on the Epic Games Store, like most of the other games in this section. I don't know if I'll like it but it looks weird and interesting and the sequel's coming out next year so I might as well play it now. Let's see what Hideo "La Creatividad" Kojima got up to this time.
- Another free game handed to me by Mr. Tim Sweeney, it's a short FPS game with an atmosphere similar to Half-Life 2, so I hear. I'm sure I could knock it out in one afternoon, I just have to do it.
- I fuckin love Mirror's Edge. This is a similar parkour game but you also have a sword. I want to play it.
- After getting into Wipeout and BallisticNG, I was eyeing this game up but not sure if I wanted to buy it. But then the funny Fortnite game store gave it away for free. So now it's just sitting in my library waiting for me to play it.
- I got this from the weekly Epic giveaway too. I feel compelled to bring that up everytime, I don't know. But anyways, I really liked Dishonored 1 and 2, so I'm sure I'll like this too.
Games that are out but I don't own yet
- Super surreal weird 90s point and click in the same vein as Myst. I was quite excited to see that it got a modern re-release on Steam.
- Another strange 90s point and click. Published by the same studio as the above entry, I believe.
- Played the demo last year, loved it. Full game is out now, I'll check it out after I finish selling my soul to Slay the Spire.
- I put a little bit of time into the demo, I am intrigued by this game. It's in early access right now so I'll wait till it's a bit more developed.
Games that will (probably) come out in 2025
- After the phenomenal demo, I have all the faith in the world that this game will turn out to be incredible. That is, assuming it actually comes out in 2025.
- A Myst-style first person pre-rendered point and click game. I've been following its development for a while, it has great visuals. Supposed to come out in 2025.
- I really loved Benoit Sokal's Syberia games. One of his earlier games is Amerzone, and I was surprised to find out there's a remake coming out next year. Let's hope it isn't a complete mess. I haven't played the original yet - maybe I'll add that to the list too??
- The sequel to my ultimate favorite game of all time, Hypnospace Outlaw. Nowhere does it say that this game will come out next year, but I'm tentatively putting it on this list anyways. Just in case.