Best Games of 2025 – Top Picks for PC, PS5, Switch 2, And Xbox
GOTY: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Tom’s Guide crowns Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as its overall Game of the Year 2025, praising Sandfall Interactive’s debut RPG for its emotional story and lush Belle Époque-inspired dark fantasy world. The publication highlights its reactive turn-based combat, which blends classic strategy with real-time dodges and parries to keep every encounter tense and engaging. The game’s acclaim aligns with its dominant run at The Game Awards, where it also won multiple top honors.
Best PS5 exclusive: Ghost of Yotei
Samurai epic Ghost of Yotei takes Tom’s Guide’s PS5 slot, building on Ghost of Tsushima with deeper combat and a striking open world set beneath snowcapped Mount Yotei. Its expanded weapon set, from dual katanas and odachi to kusarigama and firearms, plus a wolf companion that joins standoffs, pushes it to the top of 2025’s action-adventure releases. The site notes that while its narrative may not surpass Tsushima, its combat systems set a new standard for the genre.
Standout multiplatform hits
Several multiplatform titles earn praise for reinventing familiar genres. Rematch, a high-skill online soccer title from Sifu studio Sloclap, is called the best sports game of 2025 for its demanding, Rocket League-style, team-based matches that reward mastery over time. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves revives SNK’s legendary fighting series with its REV system and polished online and offline modes, becoming Tom’s Guide’s top fighting game despite a smaller player base than Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8.
Battlefield 6 wins the shooter spot by returning to “back-to-basics” Battlefield chaos—tight maps, classic classes and large-scale destruction—offering a strong alternative as Call of Duty “flails.” Extraction shooter ARC Raiders is praised for its intense, trust‑testing PvPvE sandbox where the human element and tense extractions matter as much as the gunplay.
Switch 2 and remakes shine
Nintendo’s new hardware also gets a showcase with Donkey Kong Bananza, a fully 3D, voxel-powered platformer that uses destructible environments and Banandium-powered transformations to deliver Breath of the Wild‑style discovery. Tom’s Guide calls it a defining early title for Switch 2 thanks to levels that can be reshaped vertically and horizontally as players dig, smash and explore.
On the remake front, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is singled out as a model modern revival, pairing Unreal Engine 5 visuals and quality-of-life tweaks with the original’s celebrated stealth design and self-contained story. The article argues it is the ideal entry point for newcomers curious about the Metal Gear series.
Narrative, horror and visual standouts
Silent Hill f is lauded for relocating the horror series to Japan and delivering dual, branching narratives that intertwine the physical and subconscious, returning the franchise to its psychological roots. Narrative adventure Dispatch, created by ex-Telltale developers, stands out for its darkly comedic, “The Office”-style superhero workplace drama and high replay value driven by diverging story paths.
Hades 2 keeps players hooked with its endlessly replayable rogue‑like loop and empowering progression where each run makes protagonist Melinoë stronger, echoing widespread critical praise. Meanwhile, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is recognized as one of the most visually stunning games of 2025, using the Decima engine to deliver near-photorealistic, cinematic storytelling layered over Kojima’s signature, eccentric narrative design.
Across platforms, Tom’s Guide’s list overlaps heavily with other major 2025 roundups, underscoring how these titles—especially Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Ghost of Yotei, Donkey Kong Bananza and Hades 2—defined this year’s gaming landscape.
Checkout More Content:
About The Author
