tekniklr's top 10 games of 2025

  1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
    Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

    One of the best RPGs I've ever played, and I've played a few.

    The story had enough twists to remain interesting throughout, and the music is some of the best I've heard since Nier: Automata

    Played: May 28 - June 4
  2. DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH
    DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH

    Took the concepts from the first game, and improved on each and every one of them. An actual joy to build every road, and five star every prepper.

    Played: July 10 - August 9
  3. Blue Prince
    Blue Prince

    Combining the map building from the Betrayal at House on the Hill board game with puzzle solving, this game made it fun to take notes that look like a murderboard.

    Played: April 15 - April 22
  4. PowerWash Simulator 2
    PowerWash Simulator 2

    I'm a sucker for cleaning all the things, and replay levels in PowerWash Simulator 1 pretty regularly.

    I like the QoL improvements in the sequel (such as levels mutating as you play, and doting cats), and am looking forward to future expansions and tie-ins.

    Played: October 26 - November 9
  5. Baby Steps
    Baby Steps

    QWOP games are not typically my jam, but this game had a lot more to it than being hard. It was still frustrating enough to make me want to quit constantly, but all the weirdness and commentary about arrested development and anxiety made it worth sticking with.

    Played: October 5 - October 8
  6. DOOM: The Dark Ages
    DOOM: The Dark Ages

    I didn't know I needed a Warhammer/Lovecraft playground (with better Warhammer and Lovecraft vibes than most actual Warhammer and Lovecraft games I've played) to rip and tear through, but I did.

    Played: May 18 - July 10
  7. The Outer Worlds 2
    The Outer Worlds 2

    This game started off amazingly strong, but near the end it kinda fell apart. But the first few planets were extremely my shit.

    Played: October 26 - November 12
  8. Avowed
    Avowed

    Like Outer Worlds 2, this game was a ton of fun but fell apart a bit at the end. But the world was interesting, and the gameplay was fun.

    Played: February 16 - February 27
  9. deltarune
    deltarune

    Chapters 3&4 of deltarune dropped this year, and they were both larger than chapters 1&2 and took the story and characters in more interesting places. I'm interested in seeing what comes next.

    Played: November 2019 - June 8
  10. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
    The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

    The story in Oblivion is much better than Skyrim's, but the exploration is much less fun.

    In Skyrim, every cave had some sort of hook - a story, or an interesting item; and usually a shortcut back to the beginning once you've finished searching. Not so in Oblivion- there are dozens of (procedurally generated?) caves and dungeons, but most of them are devoid of anything interesting. And once you've ventured several floors down through twisty corridors of nothing much except repetitive battles, you have to walk all the way back out. At least the Clairvoyance spell exists so you don't get lost on the way out.

    Despite that, this is still the closest thing to the Skyrim experience to come out this year, and you know I love Skyrim more than is reasonable.

    Played: April 22 - May 18