🔗 Share this article The Household Alternative Video Game of the Year Awards for 2025 Alright, how was this year in your family? Could it be described as entirely positive as you pretended on Facebook? Full of A-grades for the children and riotous dress-up birthday parties for the parents? Or was it a sea of frustration with only rare fun moments? Could any part be authentic, or is everyone now AI-generated AI slop beings with unrealistic teeth? I have gathered everyone for a chat, ready or not, to discuss the paramount thing in a calendar year: which video games we were obsessed with the most. Let's get started: Title First Daughter Played the Most Just Dance 2024 "Can’t you pick just one?" "This isn't my definitive list." Meanwhile, on mobile, she's invested time in Cityscapes and "attempting to locate decent healthcare." "In the game?" "In reality." Release Second Son Played the Most Overwatch "I don’t play games on my phone." He was offended that the question was posed. I respect that. Release Youngest Daughter Played the Most Resident Evil Biohazard Her goal is to get into theatre school, but when she wasn’t singing, she was immersed in Resident Evil. She also spoke at length in great detail about her achievements on The Sims, where her avatar has a successful utopia with infinitely better healthcare than her older sibling has in real life. Release the Spouse Played the Most Crash Bandicoot: It’s About Time She started the year at sixty percent completion and finished the year at 82%. It's a long haul not a sprint for her. Her phone game: something called Woodle, where you have to remove pins. Title I Teased My Kids About My Kids for Still Playing Minecraft Every time I see my adult son playing Minecraft, I rib him like a cross between a relentless heckler. When he protests, I reply that I am doing this to build character 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 It wasn't even close for this one. She is unstoppable. Even better than I was at Dancing Stage MegaMix in my prime. Title I Played the Most Marvel Snap It was in a league of its own to the hours I spent on this insanely well-crafted deck building digital pastime, with its ever-changing range of cards and game variations. Title I Wish I Had Played Less Marvel Snap The catch about games that constantly evolve their range is you wake up one day and see it is all just an attempt to trap you with fomo-fuelled microtransactions. So enjoyment soured halfway through the year and it went into the bin. Game I Wish I Had Played More Doom: The Dark Ages Stunning reinvention of a iconic franchise. Immersive atmosphere from the off. I wish I could eviscerate my demons so effectively in real life. Game I Wish I Had Played More (Puzzle-Focused Edition) Blue Prince I decline to rush this gorgeous, distinctive game and I just lacked the focused attention to give it what it needed earlier this year. With family visits over the festive period, I plan to dive into this in the late night after evening drinks. Game That Was a Lifesaver When I Needed It Balatro I'm aware Balatro was the previous year's surprise hit, but I was a late adopter. And it is remarkable. It just gets absolutely everything right. Crazy Poker is a wonderful concept, but the effects behind the different joker cards are so inventive it has become a game I could play at any hour. Add in the wittiness of the card design, and this is an absolute peak of gaming. I wouldn't mind being stuck in a small space for hours just so I have nothing to do but play it. Title I Got the Most Criticism For Criticising Outer Worlds 2 I experienced a minor pile-on when I wrote about how a technical issue in another game soured the experience for me, but that other title is still a massive gaming achievement in terms of overall polish – which I appreciated 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 "poorly reasoned". I share that as written, because I acknowledge the engagement, and she is obviously an sharp judge of character. Game Everybody Loved That I Just Didn’t Get Hollow Knight: Silksong Alright. Give me a bastard-hard Metroidvania-esque thing and leave me without guidance on what I am supposed to be doing, except "look around". What a joy. I understand that it is beautiful and is ideal if you are into challenging games, but I cannot think of a gaming experience I desire less in my adulthood. I was around back when many games were like this, and I’ve had enough. It was okay when I was a kid, but so was many less comfortable things. Biggest Gaming Scandal of 2025 Close call between corporate partnerships that sparked debate, and expensive game releases. Both morally indefensible and unpleasant. Games I Would Name My Children After, If I Was Ever Foolish Enough to Have More Clair Obscur, Despelote and Bananza would all sound good names bellowed from the garden at bedtime. Part of My Body That Aches Most From Gaming Right Thumb Joint. No joke. I don’t know if it’s because of console gaming or endless scrolling, but it burns like hellfire in the mornings now. I knew I should have got my thumbs looked after back in the past. 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.