It's that time again! Our most contentious post of any season, Game of the Year!
Do our opinions matter? Absolutely not. Did we comprehensively and exhaustively play every game in 2025? Also no. Will you join us on Discord and complain about our selection? I sure hope so!
We polled our staff for their nominations and these are the games that made the cut!
The Nominees Are...
It's hard to argue that Expedition 33 was anything short of excellent. While I have some minor gripes about how they handle gating within the world, I also have no doubt that as far as RPGs go this was the year's best with some of the best visuals, music, and voice acting of recent memory.
It shouldn't come as a shock that Hades 2, the sequel to one of the greatest indie titles would make the list. Hades was good enough for GOTY for the first game, why not the second? It doesn't rewrite the original's formula for success and that's probably a good thing. Will it be enough to carry it to another victory though?
Brendan nominated Split Fiction and it's the only game on this list that I haven't played, so I will attempt to paraphrase his joy. It's a sci-fi meets fantasy co-op romp smashed face-first into an Everything Everywhere All At Once acid trip. Sure sounds like a good time to me!
How could we not include Silksong, the long anticipated sequel to Hollow Knight. Especially after all the jokes that Half-life 3 would come out first. Well, jokes aside it's certainly a masterclass of Metroidvania wrapped in a challenging exoskeleton. Sharp controls, impressive visually, and a joy to play. Still haven't made it past act 2 though.
What the crap? How'd this title make the list? Oh, I see. The owner of Antlion Audio and ModMic inventor has been secretly working on a VR game and he nominated his own game for GOTY. That's the kind of nepotism we support. It ain't gonna win but here's our first announcement and a sort-of backdoor pilot to a new side of Antlion's business. It's a martial arts VR game that'll get your heart rate up and makes for some pretty brutal clips. It's currently in alpha testing, and nowhere close to finished, but it's still a fun time. Go check it out!
And the Winner Is...
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I don't think this was a knockout obvious choice. Ignoring the fact I may lose my job for not selecting Haymaker, the rest were all such amazing contenders it was incredibly hard to pick. I also don't think Expedition 33 was quite as good as other people I've talked to about it, some of whom have told me that it's not only GOTY but the best they've ever played. Regardless of my opinions, the very fact that multiple people I know believe this tells me it's something special.
For me (no spoilers) but I didn't think the ending and the decision at the end was some kind of masterclass in story writing and a few of its mechanics irked me. It did, however, keep me engaged for my entire playthrough start to finish. For a turn based RPG to do that in 2025 is very telling, small warts aside. The music, voice acting, and world building are simply top notch. Especially that music! Maybe not the greatest game of all time in my opinion, but it very well may be the greatest videogame soundtrack ever composed.
If you haven't had a chance to give this epic RPG a try I obviously suggest you do so. A perfect way to spend the holidays, or at least, avoid family for a few hours a day.