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Alright, how did you experience the past year in your home? Did it seem entirely positive as you pretended on Facebook? Full of academic success for your offspring and wild costume gatherings for the adults? Maybe it felt like a ocean of letdowns with only occasional fun moments? Could any part be genuine, or have we all become digitally altered synthetic personas with celebrity teeth?

I've corralled everyone for a reflection, ready or not, to debate the most important thing in any given year: what titles we enjoyed the most. Without further ado:

Game Eldest Daughter Played the Most

Pikmin

"Is it impossible to pick just one?"

"This isn't my games column."

On her phone, she's invested time in Cityscapes and "attempting to locate reasonable healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In reality."

Release Middle Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I don’t play games on my phone." He was offended that I even asked. Point taken.

Game Youngest Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

She is trying to get into theatre school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was tackling Resident Evil. She also elaborated in great detail about her accomplishments on The Sims, where her avatar has a blooming utopia with significantly better healthcare than her big sister has in the real world.

Game the Spouse Played the Most

Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time

She started the year at 60% completion and finished the year at eighty-two percent. It's a long haul not a sprint for her. Her phone game: something called Woodle, where you have to extract pins.

Title I Teased My Kids About My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Whenever I see my 21-year-old son playing Minecraft, I rib him like a cross between a classic comedy bit. When he complains, I reply that I am behaving this way to toughen him up so he can mature and play games for mature audiences. It's a classic Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Skilled Gaming Family Member of the Year

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

There was no contest for this one. She is incredible. Even better than I was at Dancing Stage MegaMix in my prime.

Game I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

It was in a league of its own to the hours I spent on this remarkably well-crafted deck building digital pastime, with its regularly updated range of cards and game variations.

Title I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The downside about games that endlessly add to their range is you wake up one day and realise it is all just an attempt to lure you into compulsion-based 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 legendary franchise. Engrossing atmosphere from the off. I wish I could dispatch my problems so effectively in real life.

Game I Wish I Had Played More (Puzzle-Focused Edition)

Blue Prince

I'm unwilling to rush this stunning, original game and I just didn’t have the mental bandwidth to give it what it needed earlier this year. With family visits over the festive period, I aim to experience this in the late night after family time.

Title That Was a Lifesaver When I Needed It

Balatro

I acknowledge Balatro was last year's surprise hit, but I was a late adopter. And it is remarkable. It just gets each element right. The core concept is a wonderful concept, but the effects behind the different wild cards are so creative it has become a game I could play constantly. Throw in the cleverness of the card design, and this is an absolute high-water mark of gaming. I fantasize about being stuck in a elevator for hours just so I have nothing to do but play it.

Title I Got the Most Flak For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I received a bit of backlash when I mentioned how a glitch in another game soured the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of art, sound, acting – which I recognized even more after slogging through Outer Worlds 2. So my appreciation goes out to the reader who took the time to send a message to say that my Outer Worlds 2 review was "poorly reasoned". I share that as written, because I appreciate the effort, and he is obviously an astute judge of character.

Game Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Sure. Give me a brutally difficult exploration-focused thing and don’t tell me guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "figure it out". What a joy. I understand that it is beautiful and is perfection if you are into this kind of thing, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I desire less in my current stage of life. 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 outdated things.

Biggest Gaming News of 2025

Close call between questionable alliances that sparked debate, and expensive game releases. Both difficult to justify and repugnant.

Games I Would Name My Children After, Were I I Was Ever Crazy Enough to Have More

Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names bellowed from the garden 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 doomscrolling, but it aches like hellfire in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs insured back in the 90s.

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 wait patiently until the end of days.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.