The Diamond Family Personal Game of the Year Awards for This Year

Well, how was 2025 in your household? Could it be described as entirely positive as you pretended on Facebook? Overflowing with top marks for the kids and elaborate dress-up birthday parties for the adults? Or was it a sea of frustration with only rare enjoyable highlights? Could any part be actually real, or are we all digitally altered virtual entities with perfect dental work?

I've assembled my thoughts together, ready or not, to discuss the most important thing in a calendar year: which releases we were obsessed with the most. So here goes:

Game First Daughter Played the Most

Just Dance 2024

"Can’t you pick just one?"

"This isn't my games column."

In the mobile realm, she's invested time in Cityscapes and "trying to find reasonable healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In real life."

Title Second Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I refuse to play games on my phone." He was offended that I even asked. Point taken.

Game Youngest Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

Her goal is to get into acting, but when she wasn’t singing, she was tackling Resident Evil. She also went on in great detail about her achievements on The Sims, where her character has a successful utopia with significantly better healthcare than her eldest sister has in the real world.

Title the Wife 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. Her mobile diversion: something called Woodle, where you have to unscrew pins.

Release I Laughed at My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Every time I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I give him a hard time like a cross between a relentless heckler. When he protests, I reply that I am doing this to toughen him up so he can be a man and play games for mature audiences. It's a classic Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Skilled Gaming Family Member 2025

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

It wasn't even close for this one. She is incredible. More impressive than I was at Dancing Stage MegaMix in my prime.

Game I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

No other game compared to the hours I spent on this insanely well-crafted deck building competitive game, with its constantly evolving range of cards and game variations.

Title I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The catch about games that endlessly add to their range is you eventually realize and see it is all just an attempt to trap you with 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

Stunning reinvention of a classic franchise. Captivating atmosphere from the start. 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 stunning, original game and I just lacked the mental bandwidth to give it what it needed earlier this year. With holiday guests over the festive period, I will be playing this in the late night after family time.

Title That Kept Me Sane When I Needed It

Balatro

I acknowledge Balatro was the previous year's breakout game, but I was late to it. And it is exceptional. It just gets absolutely everything right. Crazy Poker is a wonderful concept, but the powers behind the different wild cards are so imaginative it has become a game I would happily play constantly. Add in the cleverness of the card design, and this is an true pinnacle of gaming. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a small space for hours just so I have the perfect excuse but play it.

Game I Got the Most Flak For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I received a bit of backlash when I mentioned how a technical issue in another game ruined the experience for me, but that other title is still a gargantuan gaming achievement in terms of overall polish – which I valued even more after playing Outer Worlds 2. So thank you to the commenter who took the time to contact me to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "bitter, confused resentment". I mention that verbatim, because I acknowledge the engagement, and she is obviously an astute judge of character.

Title Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Fine. Give me a brutally difficult non-linear thing and don’t tell me guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "figure it out". What a joy. I acknowledge that it is beautiful and is ideal if you are into the genre, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I am less interested in in my mid-fifties. I was around back when all games were like this, and I’ve had enough. It was okay when I was a kid, but the same could be said for many questionable things.

Biggest Gaming News of 2025

Debate between business deals that sparked debate, 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 bellowed from the back door at tea time.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. Honestly. I don’t know if it’s because of button mashing or endless scrolling, but it burns like anything in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs looked after back in the day.

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.