2025: A Year in Gaming

At three years running, this is proving to be my most consistent series and one of my favourite to write. Not a news roundup but a reflection on my gaming year - any patterns or trends that emerged or any moments I want to bring back up for discussion. An end of year performance review… for a hobby.

Results Screen

In 2025, I played a grand total of 84 Games and DLC. That’s probably at the expense of a bunch of movies and TV Shows but what can you do? Of those 84 games, 54 of them released in 2025! The ratio was good with 38 completed and 16 Abandoned or Postponed. Not a bad batting average

Platinums, Baby!

Another good year for Platinum trophies, with a grand total of 30. Less than in 2024 but I’m still proud of the amount I got. While 52 in 52 is dead (offficially…), I’ve still got the big ol target of 250 to hit at some point. Won’t be in 2026 but in 2027? It’s certainly possible!

2025’s Platinum update article should be out a day after this one, stay tuned!

The start of Co-op Adventures

Me and Jade took the biggest leap a couple could take this year - playing Co-op games together. Conflicting schedules mean we only managed to get through 4 but we have plenty more lined up for 2026, including some 2025 releases like Lego Voyagers and Little Nightmares 3.

I played the worst game of 2025

Widely considered to be the worst game of the year - Mindseye. Coming from ex Rockstar founder in his studio Build a Rocket Boy, MindsEye was a game that was meant to be part of the wider Everywhere program which was like Roblox or whatever. All of that fell apart but the game remained.

I played it through to the Platinum - it was bland, generic and not terribly interesting but to call it the worst game ever seems like a bit of a stretch. I’m not trying to defend it but it wasn’t awful, just not a worthwhile experience. Between buying second hand and trading it in, I only paid like a tenner so not bad.

Maybe in Expedition 32 instead?

From the worst game to the Game of the Year, I started off really enjoying the game, really engaging with it. I got roughly 16 hours in which was roughly half way through Act 2 as well as a decent handful of side content.

Unfortunately, coinciding with a difficulty spike in the game (in the Old Lumiere area), I saw spoilers for the games endings - I might have liked the endings in the context but reading them online accidentally mixed with the frustration from the difficulty made me give up on the game.

Thanks to peer pressure, I’ll be trying it again in 2026.

In-and-Outer Worlds

In preparation for it’s sequel (which I didn't even get around to playing but I suppose that's besides the point). I had the full game with it’s DLC through PS Plus and it was leaving the service. I also wanted to get the platinum so I feel like I rushed through the experience, not really getting to enjoy it to it’s fullest. Worst yet, I have the disc of Outer Worlds which I could have played, especially since I ended up skipping the DLC content to finish everything in time. A very real case of don't miss the forest for the trees.

Mass Effect, my beloved

A major trilogy knocked out of my back catalogue and a new all time favourite series found. Mass Effect man, I love absolutely everything about this trilogy from the story to gameplay to characters to world and lore and just about everything else. I spent an entire month playing the trilogy in full, something I’ve not done for a long time. I’m already fighting the urge to go back and replay the trilogy, making different choices and playing on Legendary. Maybe if I find a quiet time this year…

New Proudest Plat, not the Rarest

I originally played I am Your Beast back in 2024, it came out on Playstation in 2025 and I dived straight back in. The trophies were initially bugged but once I knew they were fixed, I went to work. It certainly was work, a challenge and a half but it was very fun to do.

At the time of writing, the platinum has an attatch rate of 1.3 - a respectable number, given the smaller sales numbers. Yet it is still not my rarest platinum, it is still to this day the platinum for Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled. I know it sold very well but for only 0.5% of people to have it (0.3 back when I got it) is insane! I don't even think it's that difficult of a platinum! Just one of those funny things, I suppose.

Game of the Year 2024 Revisited

I figured I’d have more to talk about here but I’m happy with my rankings and I still haven’t played a bunch of the games I missed out on - Hades II, Dragon’s Dogma II, Balatro to name but a few. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was technically a 2024 release but it didn’t hit PS5 until 2025 so it became part of my 2025 list (Where it didn’t do particularly well anyways).

The only real contender is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown which I heard was good but I didn’t realize how good it really was. On the list, it would land firmly in 4th or 5th place, moving Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or I am your Beast up a slot, knocking Thank Goodness You’re Here out of the top 10 and knocking Star Wars: Outlaws out of the honourable mentions.

I know I’ll have to revisit GOTY 2025 at the end of this year because I’m sure there will be plenty of changes. It’s also just a bit low effort this year, but it’s out there now so that’s it.

So what’s next for 2026?

2026 is going to be the year of motivation and consistency. Despite what I might have promised in the past, my goal is to continue doing what I do well, ideally at a faster and more consitent pace. The website may see some kind of visual change but I stop short of promising a full overhaul - maybe just adding some of the socials (the one Social media we have) as well as tidying up the pretty barren front page. Ignore anything in the January and July updates, past Craig doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Once my PC is in my new house (I moved, hence the lack of anything in November), there’s a good chance this website could receive a new sort of article, maybe in Retrospectives, maybe in For the Love of the Game or maybe in a new tab entirely, it remains to be seen.

Regardless of any of that, thank you everybody for reading everything myself and Jade have put out this (last) year and I hope you all continue to read in 2026 and beyond.

Lots of Love,

Craig and Jade x