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So, how was 2025 in your family? Was it truly wonderful as people post on social media? Overflowing with top marks for your offspring and riotous costume celebrations for the adults? Maybe it felt like a ocean of letdowns with only rare entertaining moments? And was any of it authentic, or is everyone now seven-fingered virtual entities with unrealistic teeth?

I've corralled everyone for a chat, willing or unwilling, to debate the paramount thing in any given year: which releases we enjoyed the most. So here goes:

Release Oldest Daughter Played the Most

Horizon Zero Dawn

"Can’t you pick just one?"

"It’s not my games column."

In the mobile realm, her go-to has been Cityscapes and "trying to find decent healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In reality."

Game Second Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I have no interest in games on my phone." He took umbrage that the question was posed. Point taken.

Game Third Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

She is trying to get into acting, but when she took a break from vocals, she was playing Resident Evil. She also spoke at length in great detail about her successes on The Sims, where the Shark has a successful utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her big sister has outside the game.

Release the Partner Played the Most

Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time

She began the year at sixty percent completion and ended it at eighty-two percent. It's a long haul not a sprint for her. On her phone: something called Woodle, where you have to remove pins.

Release I Found Amusing That My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Whenever I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I rib him like a cross between a persistent critic. When he complains, I reply that I am behaving this way to prepare him so he can mature and play games for grownups. This defines our Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Impressive Gaming Family Member 2025

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

There was no contest for this one. She is incredible. More impressive than I was at Dancing Stage MegaMix in my prime.

Title I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

Nothing came close to the hours I spent on this remarkably well-crafted deck building digital pastime, with its ever-changing range of cards and game variations.

Game I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The worst thing about games that endlessly add to their range is you eventually realize and see it is all just an attempt to lure you into fear-of-missing-out driven microtransactions. So love turned to hate halfway through the year and it was deleted.

Game I Wish I Had Played More

Doom: The Dark Ages

Excellent reinvention of a classic franchise. Engrossing atmosphere from the off. I wish I could eviscerate my problems so effectively in real life.

Game I Wish I Had Played More (Puzzle-Focused Edition)

Blue Prince

I refuse to rush this gorgeous, distinctive game and I just didn’t have the focused attention to give it what it needed earlier this year. With family visits over the festive period, I will be playing this in the early morning after appropriate hospitality.

Game That Saved My Soul When I Needed It

Balatro

I know Balatro was the previous year's surprise hit, but I was a late adopter. And it is remarkable. It just gets every single thing right. Its gameplay loop is a brilliant concept, but the powers behind the different special cards are so inventive it has become a game I literally would play constantly. Throw in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an absolute pinnacle of gaming. I fantasize about being stuck in a elevator for hours just so I have nothing to do but play it.

Game I Got the Most Backlash For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I experienced a bit of backlash when I wrote about how a glitch in another game ruined 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 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 appreciate the effort, and she is obviously an excellent judge of character.

Game Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Fine. Give me a bastard-hard exploration-focused thing and don’t tell me guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "look around". What a joy. I acknowledge that it looks ace and is flawless if you are into the genre, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I am less interested in in my adulthood. I was around back when all games were like this, and I'm over it. It was acceptable when I was a kid, but so was many less comfortable things.

Biggest Gaming Controversy of 2025

Toss-up between corporate partnerships that raised eyebrows, and expensive game releases. Both morally indefensible and unpleasant.

Games I Would Name My Children After, If I Was Ever Foolish Enough to Have More

Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names bellowed from the doorstep at dinner time.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. Honestly. I don’t know if it’s because of video games or endless scrolling, but it is sore like anything 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 stretch time until the heat death of the universe.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.