🔗 Share this article Our Diamond Family Unofficial Game of the Year Roundup for This Year Alright, how did you experience 2025 in your household? Could it be described as all as good as one might claim on Facebook? Packed with top marks for your offspring and wild costume gatherings for the grownups? Or was it a ocean of letdowns with only sporadic fun highlights? Could any part be genuine, or are we all seven-fingered AI slop beings with perfect smiles? I've assembled the family for a chat, ready or not, to debate the paramount thing in any given year: which video games we played the most. Without further ado: Release First Daughter Played the Most Just Dance 2024 "Why can't you pick just one?" "It’s not my games column." Meanwhile, on mobile, her go-to has been Cityscapes and "attempting to locate adequate healthcare." "Virtually?" "In reality." Title Middle Son Played the Most Overwatch "I have no interest in games on my phone." He took umbrage that I even asked. I respect that. Title Third Daughter Played the Most Resident Evil Biohazard Her goal is to get into theatre school, but when she stepped away from the mic, she was tackling Resident Evil. She also spoke at length in great detail about her achievements on The Sims, where her character has a thriving utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her eldest sister has in real life. Title the Spouse Played the Most Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time She started the year at sixty percent completion and ended it at 82%. It’s a marathon not a sprint for her. On her phone: something called Woodle, where you have to unscrew pins. Game I Laughed at My Kids for Still Playing Minecraft Every time I see my 21-year-old son playing Minecraft, I set about him like a cross between a classic comedy bit. When he complains, I reply that I am engaging in this to toughen him up so he can be a man and play games for adults. This defines our Scottish father/son relationship. Most Notable Gaming Family Member of the Year Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024 She was the clear winner for this one. She is a machine. More impressive than I was at classic rhythm games in my prime. Game I Played the Most Marvel Snap Nothing came close to the hours I spent on this insanely well-crafted deck building wizard’s poker, with its constantly evolving range of cards and game variations. Title I Wish I Had Played Less Marvel Snap The downside about games that constantly evolve their range is you wake up one day and realise it is all just an attempt to lure you into fomo-fuelled microtransactions. So affection became resentment halfway through the year and it got uninstalled. Title I Wish I Had Played More Doom: The Dark Ages Glorious reinvention of a legendary franchise. Captivating atmosphere from the start. I wish I could dispatch my issues so effectively in real life. Game I Wish I Had Played More (Cerebral Edition) Blue Prince I'm unwilling to rush this stunning, original game and I just was short on the mental bandwidth to give it what it deserved earlier this year. With holiday guests over the festive period, I will be playing this in the late night after appropriate hospitality. Game That Kept Me Sane When I Needed It Balatro I'm aware Balatro was the previous year's surprise hit, but I was a late adopter. And it is exceptional. It just gets absolutely everything right. Crazy Poker is a wonderful concept, but the effects behind the different special cards are so inventive it has become a game I could play at any hour. Add in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an definite pinnacle of gaming. I fantasize about being stuck in a elevator for hours just so I have an opportunity but play it. Title I Got the Most Criticism For Criticising Outer Worlds 2 I received a wave of criticism when I critiqued how a glitch in another game damaged the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of production values – which I valued even more after slogging through Outer Worlds 2. So my appreciation goes out to the individual who took the time to write in to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "bitter, confused resentment". I share that as written, because I appreciate the effort, and he 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 Metroidvania-esque thing and provide little guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "look around". Great fun. I acknowledge that it has great art and is ideal if you are into this kind of thing, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I want less of in my adulthood. I was around back when many 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 Scandal of 2025 Debate between business deals that caused concern, and premium pricing. Both difficult to justify and repugnant. Games I Would Name My Children After, If I Was Ever Crazy Enough to Have More Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all make interesting names called from the back door at bedtime. Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming Right Thumb Joint. Seriously. I don’t know if it’s because of console gaming or endless scrolling, but it burns like hellfire in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs protected back in the past. 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 cows come home. Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036 The Witcher 4.