This Dominik Diamond Alternative Game of the Year Roundup for This Year

Well, how did you experience 2025 in your home? Was it all as good as one might claim on online? Full of academic success for the kids and wild dress-up birthday parties for the parents? Or was it a sea of disappointment with only rare enjoyable moments? And was any of it authentic, or is everyone now seven-fingered synthetic personas with perfect dental work?

I have gathered everyone together, ready or not, to reflect on the most important thing in any given year: what titles we played the most. So here goes:

Game First Daughter Played the Most

Just Dance 2024

"Why can't you pick just one?"

"This isn't my games column."

In the mobile realm, she’s been playing Cityscapes and "searching for adequate healthcare."

"Digitally?"

"In reality."

Title Second Son Played the Most

Overwatch

"I don’t play games on my phone." He took umbrage that the question was posed. Point taken.

Release Youngest Daughter Played the Most

Resident Evil Biohazard

She's attempting to get into drama school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was immersed in Resident Evil. She also elaborated in great detail about her successes on The Sims, where her avatar has a successful utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her eldest sister has in real life.

Release the Partner Played the Most

Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time

She began the year at sixty percent completion and finished the year at eighty-two percent. It’s a marathon not a sprint for her. Her phone game: something called Woodle, where you have to unscrew pins.

Release I Found Amusing That My Kids for Still Playing

Minecraft

Any time I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I set about him like a cross between a classic comedy bit. When he protests, I reply that I am behaving this way to build character so he can mature and play games for mature audiences. It's a classic Scottish father/son relationship.

Most Notable Gaming Family Member of the Year

Eldest Daughter on Just Dance 2024

There was no contest for this one. She is unstoppable. Superior than I was at my peak gaming days in my prime.

Title I Played the Most

Marvel Snap

Nothing came close to the hours I spent on this insanely well-crafted strategy wizard’s poker, with its regularly updated range of cards and game variations.

Game I Wish I Had Played Less

Marvel Snap

The downside about games that frequently update their range is you wake up one day and understand it is all just an attempt to suck you into compulsion-based microtransactions. So affection became resentment halfway through the year and it was deleted.

Game I Wish I Had Played More

Doom: The Dark Ages

Excellent reinvention of a classic franchise. Engrossing atmosphere from the beginning. I wish I could deal with my problems so effectively in real life.

Title I Wish I Had Played More (Thoughtful Edition)

Blue Prince

I decline to rush this beautiful, unique game and I just didn’t have the focused attention to give it what it deserved earlier this year. With holiday guests over the festive period, I will be playing this in the early morning after evening drinks.

Game That Saved My Soul When I Needed It

Balatro

I'm aware Balatro was 2024’s breakout game, but I was a late adopter. And it is incredible. It just gets absolutely everything right. Crazy Poker is a fantastic concept, but the abilities behind the different wild cards are so inventive it has become a game I literally would play constantly. Add in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an absolute peak of gaming. I fantasize about being stuck in a small space for hours just so I have nothing to do but play it.

Title I Got the Most Backlash For Criticising

Outer Worlds 2

I experienced a minor pile-on when I critiqued how a specific bug in another game soured the experience for me, but that other title is still a colossal gaming achievement in terms of art, sound, acting – which I recognized 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 present that verbatim, because I respect the passion, 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 punishingly tough non-linear thing and don’t tell me guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "explore". How delightful. I acknowledge that it has great art and is perfection if you are into this kind of thing, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I am less interested in in my adulthood. I was around back when most games were like this, and I’ve had enough. It was fine when I was a kid, but the same could be said for many less comfortable things.

Biggest Gaming Scandal of 2025

Close call between business deals that sparked debate, and premium pricing. Both ethically dubious and concerning.

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

Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all make interesting names shouted from the doorstep at bedtime.

Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming

Right Thumb Joint. Honestly. I don’t know if it’s because of console gaming or endless scrolling, but it is sore like anything in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs looked after 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 make 2026 last until the end of days.

Game I Am Looking Forward to the Most in 2036

The Witcher 4.