Zack Zwiezen’s return to publishing a personal Top 10 list for 2025 marks a notable moment for gaming culture coverage. After a turbulent period when the previous owners at G/O Media halted personal top ten lists across Kotaku, the writer returns with a year’s worth of reflections. The comeback framing suggests 2025 offered a wide field of worthy titles, but few that anchored the year in the way earlier benchmarks did. This piece presents his Top 10 of 2025 in the order they came together, with a final reveal reserved for his favorite. A nod to tradition appears at the bottom, where his Top 10 of 2024 sits as a point of comparison.
It was a year that delivered a broad spectrum of experiences. Zwiezen notes he started with over 20 games and whittled the list down to ten with relative ease, saying nothing resembled a compelled pick the way Control did in 2019 or Half-Life: Alyx in subsequent years. The ten items span big-budget releases and intimate indies. Among them are Battlefield 6, Routine, Avowed, the THPS 3+4 remake, Despelote, Dispatch, Mafia: The Old Country, South of Midnight, Jurassic World Evolution 3, and The Outer Worlds 2. The list is presented as a personal slate rather than a formal ranking until the final reveal, inviting readers to weigh the choices against their own 2025 experiences.
Several entries anchor the year in distinctive ways. Battlefield 6 channels chaotic yet tactical multiplayer that rewards improvisation and teamwork. Routine conjures an oppressive atmosphere through familiar spaces—kitchens, offices, corridors—rather than relying on cheap scares. Avowed sharpens the Bethesda-inspired RPG loop with well-written companions and crafted side quests, trimming some of the earlier simulations’ bloat. The THPS 3+4 remake by Iron Galaxy lands as a precise, playable love letter to the classics, preserving tight two-minute sessions that casual and hardcore players alike will savor. Despelote uses soccer as a throughline to tell a coming-of-age story set in Quito during the 2002 World Cup, blending memory, place, and heart. Dispatch shows that a modern, episodic, narrative-forward approach can still connect in the same way as classic Telltale games, thanks to strong voice acting and a focus on character humor.
Mafia: The Old Country represents a cinematic, linear alternative amid open-world fantasies, a reminder that not every standout year needs sprawling RPG depth. South of Midnight leans into a stop-motion aesthetic and a Southern US mythos to explore memory, identity, and power, accompanied by one of the year’s standout soundtracks. Jurassic World Evolution 3 completes a robust park-builder package, rewarding patient planning and steady progression. And at the top of the list sits The Outer Worlds 2, a continuation of Obsidian’s open-ended FPS RPG formula that rekindles the sense of discovery fans crave. The game’s presentation, writing, and wealth of moments make it easy to see why it held the top spot in the writer’s thinking, and the inclusion of an in-game radio with ads and songs adds a touch of playful authenticity to its world.
At the bottom of the publication, readers will also find Zack’s Top 10 Games of 2024, which functions as a retro reference point and a reminder that tastes evolve alongside a designer’s ongoing work. The year-by-year contrast underlines the unpredictability of a year in gaming, where some titles endure while others fade from memory. The piece, while personal in tone, contributes to a broader discourse around how cultural critics weigh innovation, polish, narrative ambition, and sheer replayability when ranking a year’s releases.
In sum, the Top 10 for 2025 showcases a year of bursts of creativity across genres: strategy, horror, RPG, platforming, and simulation all find representation. It also underscores a culture shift—the return of a longtime Kotaku writer to a personal, opinion-driven year-end list after organizational changes—reflecting how journalism can be as much about voice as it is about review scores. For readers seeking a concise gateway into 2025’s standout moments, the piece offers a throughline of bold design choices, memorable characters, and the kind of personal perspective that sparks conversation within the gaming community.
Images accompany the article to set the tone and atmosphere, including a collage that evokes the year’s mix of big-budget blockbusters and intimate indie moments.