Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 secured five awards at this week's Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' (AIAS) DICE Awards (not to be confused with EA's Stockholm studio of the same name), including the coveted Game of the Year prize, while Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei secured three, including for Adventure Game of the Year.
43.8 million player votes later, the winners of the 2025 Steam Awards have been announced, with Hollow Knight: Silksong securing top prize, Game of the Year.
It's been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.
2025 has gone by in a flash, hasn't it? Well, apart from the days I've spent tabulating all your Game of the Year votes and presenting the results here - that has felt like an eternity and I think has given me permanent neck pain. But, let's not worry about that. I'm sure you'll agree it was worth the sacrifice.
Celebrated indie gem Blue Prince won't be getting a localisation or a direct sequel, as its creator wants all his projects "to be able to stand up on their own and be unique things".
Turnips! Everywhere! As far as the eye can see! Well, not quite, but The Séance of Blake Manor certainly has a lot of them. This might seem like a strange place to start when talking about developer Spooky Doorway's brilliant new supernatural detective mystery, but it actually says quite a lot about what makes it so good. Here, a fun historical footnote - that jack-o'-lanterns were originally carved from turnips - is turned into a feature, as glowering turnip faces leer from shadowy corners and sit in ghoulish formation along the sweep of an imposing staircase. In the grand scheme of things, a minor detail - but it's also one that lends this spooky deductive yarn an air of historical authenticity that sells its supernatural premise so much harder.
