A reader puts the blame for Xbox’s current problems squarely on Microsoft, blaming management failures, a lack of vision, and unwillingness to take risks.

It was November 2001 when Microsoft entered the gaming console arena. The green, cyberpunk style dashboard was dazzling, and it had one true game-changer: Halo: Combat Evolved. Players could battle grunting aliens across vast landscapes and drive amazing vehicles. Not only did this elevate the game to new heights, but it also drew huge crowds to the console.

In 2004, Microsoft dropped the price of the Xbox to an affordable £149. Sales increased, and Microsoft had established itself as a major player in the industry.

The Xbox 360 followed and held a firm grip on the market, even with the infamous Red Ring of Death incidents. It seemed Microsoft was poised to do for gaming what it had done for operating systems and office software – but that changed. You could blame Nintendo or PlayStation for focusing solely on consoles, rather than trying to turn them into all-singing, all-dancing media hubs.

In 2017, Microsoft launched Game Pass, positioning it as the ‘Netflix of gaming’. But Netflix does not release brand new, unproven films on the platform immediately after production. How can a studio make real profit that way?

Instead, Microsoft thought it clever to release major games like Starfield on Game Pass on day one, rather than waiting at least eight months to a year. With over 10 million players engaging with these titles but only an estimated 1 to 2 million Xbox users purchasing the actual product, out of a 34 million strong userbase, this represents a major shortfall.

Microsoft is not destroying its Xbox base through a lack of games, but through a lack of foresight. Day one releases should not exist on any gaming streaming service. Xbox titles should launch traditionally, for at least eight months to a year before being added to Game Pass.

Xbox is being suffocated by Microsoft, kept afloat only by PlayStation and PC purchases – and perhaps soon by the Nintendo Switch 2 platform. It is sad to see. Within five years, I believe the Xbox platform may cease to exist – not because of its fanbase, but because its owner has never truly learned how to compete in the gaming space.

Look at Sony and Nintendo: gaming consoles are not PCs. Streaming should give players choice, but it should not starve production studios of the glory – and profitability – of successful launches. You may disagree with this article, but you will likely agree that Microsoft is losing with Xbox; not because of the fanbase, but because Microsoft itself is no longer a fan of the Xbox.

Maybe I sound harsh, but I remember the original Xbox. Microsoft promised a multiplayer experience. One example was a game called Brute Force, a brilliant title where you control four characters on a mission. It had four-player local support, but everyone was waiting for the Xbox Live add-on. Microsoft again underdelivered, not realising that adding this component would have boosted sales and expanded its catalogue of exclusive titles. Instead, they prioritised the Halo explosion.

Look at Nintendo and Sony: they protect exclusives because good products sell consoles. Consider No Man’s Sky – not exclusive to any platform – but the studio persisted despite a rough launch. Their belief in the project created growth in a small but talented production team. I mention this because Microsoft has repeatedly given up on gaming projects, stifling the growth of Xbox exclusives.

Perfect Dark was cancelled – a perfect example of Microsoft destroying its own platform. With over a million units sold on the original Xbox, cancelling a sequel makes little sense. A return on DLC and season passes could have bolstered profits and helped sell the Xbox Series X in solid numbers.

Microsoft owns Activision, which promised exclusive games for Xbox, but instead the company cancelled titles as the new owner. Did you know Microsoft lost $300 million putting Call of Duty on Game Pass? Someone should have been held accountable for that decision.

Microsoft is destroying the Xbox – not because it can, but because it lacks vision. Leaders like Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Elon Musk (yes, I said it), and Bill Gates understood customer needs and delivered great products that were also profitable. Xbox, unfortunately, will fade because no one at Microsoft is taking bold enough risks.

Goodbye, Xbox. It’s sad to see the Chief Master lose the fight.

By reader S.D.E Wilson

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Upset at the news that Demon’s Souls remake developer Bluepoint Games is being shut down, a reader is adamant that Sony has crossed a line.

After a pretty good State of Play the other week Sony must’ve felt uncomfortable with so much praise and positive press, so they immediately decided to go back to form and shut down Bluepoint Games. I couldn’t believe the news when I read it but then I realised it wasn’t surprising at all. People have been trying to convince themselves for month, that Sony has seen sense about live service games, and is throttling back, but they’re not. I don’t think they’ve learned a thing since this generation started.

I do put the blame here squarely on Sony. When they were losing in the Xbox 360 generation, they kept insisting they were still the market leader, and always would be, but when they actually needed to show some leadership they’ve got nothing. They’re running all their developers into the ground and producing almost no new games.

Bluepoint were only 70 people, how were they supposed to produce a hit live service game when Rockstar and Epic Games have thousands of people working on GTA and Fortnite? So Sony gave them an impossible task and then shut them down when they failed, instead of getting them to make a game they were actually set up to do.

Despite what we want to believe Sony isn’t interested in anything but live service games. They’ll keep still doing the very biggest games, because the profit margins on them are good enough – things like Spider-Man and Naughty Dog’s stuff – but everything else is being phased out.

Looking at their list of recent acquisitions, I wouldn’t bet on any of the studios surviving, except for Insomniac Games. Haven will be shut down the minute Fairgame$ is a flop, if it even comes out, and Housemarque are probably dead as soon as Saros doesn’t do well. As for Bungie… they’ve been a dead developer walking for at least a year now, it’s just a question of when Sony pull the plug.

Sony has no interest whatsoever in going back to the way they used to work before the PlayStation 5, or even in its first year or so. That time is over and even though their games are the thing people used to love them for they don’t care. All they want is the absolute biggest hits and nothing else matters. They don’t care about being experimental, about taking a risk, or doing anything for the simple art of it.

It sounds naïve to say it like that – they’re a business, of course they’re not interested in art – but Sony got where they are today by pushing the art of gaming. The PS1 changed what people thought a video game console and its games could be. They changed the perception, amongst the general public, forever and for years afterwards they pushed the boundaries and produced some of the best games ever made.

But then they let costs get away with them, without doing anything to reduce them, and instead of trying to figure out a new way of doing things just gave up. It was live service games, and the occasionally quadruple-A game, and nothing. It’s a dumb, cowardly way of thinking about things but because Xbox is no longer any competition they’ve been able to get away with it, because what other console are people going to buy?

Well, I can tell you that I’ll be sticking to my Switch 2 and PC from now on and that will do me fine. This might not be the final betrayal but I’m not waiting around for that. I’m selling my PlayStation 5 and I’ll buy Saros on PC, when it comes out on that. Assuming Sony don’t shut them down before they have a chance to make it.

By reader Grackle

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It was one of the most influential games of the PlayStation 1 era but how does Metal Gear Solid stand up almost three decades later? A reader is surprised to find out.

Alaska – Bering Sea. A submarine cuts through the murky ocean depths. Tonally and in terms of production values the score that plays infers that you’re watching a scene from a Hollywood action movie. But this isn’t a movie, although in many respects you get the impression that it wants to be. What I’ve described is the opening cut scene of Metal Gear Solid, a game that I adored many years ago. Since I still have my original twin disc copy of the game I thought I’d replay it from start to finish on a PlayStation 2 [presumably via The Essential Collection – GC]. Would this much revered classic be as good as I remembered?

You are Solid Snake. Your mission: infiltrate a terrorist stronghold, free a couple of hostages and investigate a possible nuclear threat. Do this with the clothes on your back, a CODEC receiver/transmitter, a scope, and a packet of cigarettes. For this mission weapons and equipment are OSP – on-site procurement. In terms of real-world logic our hero’s initial loadout is ludicrous. However, starting out with close to no items in your inventory does turn the game into a big treasure hunt. And in this case that treasure is military hardware: thermal goggles, chaff grenades, C4 explosive, Stinger missiles…

Replaying Metal Gear Solid it took me a while to adjust to the top-down view that it uses, which when compared to the presentation of modern big budget games seems basic and regressive, but provided that you make use of the radar in the top right corner of the screen the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid still works perfectly. Nearly three decades have passed and yet Shadow Moses Island prevails as a wonderous gaming world to immerse yourself in. Who cares about blocky graphics when the interactive picture those graphics paint is so atmospheric and nuanced?

While you sneak around the overrun military base, patrolling enemies yawn, stretch, fall asleep, and follow any footprints in the snow that Snake makes. The warmth of an enemy’s breath shows up as mist. Make a guard suspicious and a question mark appears above their head. Alert a guard and their heightened awareness is indicated by the now iconic exclamation mark.

On this playthrough I surprised some mice in an air vent. Little exclamation marks appeared above the rodents’ heads when they saw me and scurried off. Half the fun of Metal Gear Solid, and the franchise overall, is discovering these quirky and innovative details.

This time around I had problems defeating each and every boss in this game, I expect due to a substantial lack of practise. But the rogue elements of Foxhound are so atypical and entertaining that even when they kill you it’s hard to resent them. The game certainly wouldn’t be the same without their presence.

For instance, Cyborg Ninja still made an impression on me, or rather his introduction did. Walking down a corridor littered with bleeding corpses flung this way and that you feel like you’ve mistakenly strayed into a survival horror game. This part of Snake’s mission flags up another recognisable trait of the Metal Gear franchise, for better or for worse: tonal inconsistency.

Those melodramatic cries on the cool-looking Game Over screen. SNAAAAKE! Are those outbursts meant to be funny? They made me laugh every time I heard them.

Then you’ll get characters that appear to fall in love over the space of an hour or so, having never met. Otacon and Sniper Wolf. This entirely one-sided romance is so phoney, and yet the game tries to tug on our emotional heart strings when one of them dies.

Snake himself seems like a decent bloke. A moral, modest underdog and so it’s easy to side with him. And then the expert operative tells Meryl that she’s got a great butt. Wow. With chat up lines like that Snake how can any woman resist you?

Predictably, since I haven’t attempted this sneaking mission for at least a couple of decades, I had trouble beating Metal Gear Rex near the end of the game. This boss battle has two phases. In-between the first phase and the second phase there’s a cut scene that you’re forced to watch again and again if you keep losing the fight. I couldn’t skip this moment, which made it seem like a sadistic punishment for dying.

After finishing Metal Gear Solid I wanted to play through the game again. To me that’s clear evidence of its quality. The good parts of Solid Snake’s PlayStation debut certainly outweigh what’s bad. But what’s bad about the game is bad with a capital B or rather misjudged to an extent that these flaws clearly stand out.

Saying that, even after recently experiencing them I can tolerate Metal Gear Solid’s annoyances because they’re counteracted with flashes of genius. The location of Meryl’s CODEC frequency. Homing in on your target in first person view with a Nikita remote-controlled missile. Psycho Mantis breaking down the fourth wall and messing with your game console. Cooling down and heating up the PAL card. What other game allows you to sneak around and fast travel inside a cardboard box?

All of that gaming gold is probably worth having to read your way through line after line of CODEC exposition. And sweet as she is, I wish Mei Ling would learn the value of concise verbal exchanges during an active mission. Yes, Mei Ling, I want to save. That’s kind of why I called you. No, please don’t tell me another Chinese proverb, unless it’s one about the benefits of radio silence.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

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As The Legend Of Zelda celebrates four decades of thwarting the forces of evil a reader looks back at his time with the games and hopes for another 40 years of Hyrulean entertainment.

If this gets shown on Saturday it will be the 40th anniversary of The Legend Of Zelda – my favourite video game series of all-time. I wasn’t old enough to play the original when it first came out, and apparently it took nearly two extra years to get released in the UK anyway, but ever since A Link To The Past on the SNES I’ve loved the games.

People often comment on how there aren’t many Zelda clones and I think that speaks to how magical and unique they are. You don’t put together a Zelda game in a few months, like you would a racing game or shooter, these aren’t simulations, these are interactive fantasies like no other.

I guess I must’ve played A Link To The Past around about 1993, so that game has been with me for a long time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve replayed it and yet I never get bored with its perfect mix of puzzle and exploration and how it manages to have so many memorable characters, despite the simple storytelling and a main character that doesn’t speak.

I think it’s because the other games have kept this same formula over the years that they’ve remained so high quality and popular. A lot of them are very different, especially Breath Of The Wild and Tears Of The Kingdom, but it’s still the exploration, the freedom, and the charm that’s the most important thing. It doesn’t matter what the game’s gimmick is or what the story is, what’s important is how it leaves you to live your own adventure as Link.

Writing this down I realise that it’s not just the games I remember but what I was doing at the time. A Link To The Past was a Christmas present and I remember unwrapping it. Ocarina Of Time I was older and I remember a friend mocking me because the N64 was for ‘kids’ and then having to admit that, actually, Zelda was really good.

By the time of The Wind Waker I had a girlfriend and she actually liked the game, which made me realise games weren’t just for loveless nerds. For Twilight Princess I remember I was only a few months into my first decent job and by the time I was playing Skyward Sword I was married!

So Zelda really is something that’s followed me through for my whole life, so it’s great that all the memories are happy. Breath Of The Wild was a bit garbled though, because we had our first kid at the time, but they were already interested in watching Tears Of The Kingdom (they really like the horses).

I don’t know anymore than anyone else where the series is going in the future, but it’s never let me down before so I will absolutely be there to experience it. Especially as it’s one of the few games my wife likes to watch and even my daughter seems interested in.

Much as I love them, that’s not something I can say about other favourites like Resident Evil and Elden Ring, so I think there’s a lot to be said about a set of games that are not only very highly quality but can be appreciated by just about anyone, no matter what they think about video games in general.

So I just want to thank Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, Koji Kondo, and everyone else that has helped to make the series what it is and who gave me, and millions of other fans, so many happy memories. I’m sure Zelda will be around in another 40 years and with a bit of luck so will I, so I can get to appreciate the continued evolution of the best video game franchise in the world!

By reader Rhion

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A reader offers his list of the top 10 games he’s most looking forward to this year, including those he intends to pre-order without any further information.

It’s 2026 now, which means many stellar and upcoming titles will grace us with their presence in the coming few months. I’ll be honest, I’m actually hoping to purchase a new phone in August, for my birthday.

But that doesn’t take away from some amazing games, that I will definitely be playing, so I’d like to take this time to list my 10 most anticipated games as, more than anything, these are the names that have intrigued me.

I will be leaving out sports games, battle royale titles, racing games, and live service debacles. Those don’t really interest me and I don’t play them. Just not my cup of tea. So here they are.

10. Resident Evil Requiem

The first major title of 2026, this is dependant on the reviews and if Capcom stick to the horror aspect. I’m exceptionally tired of action set pieces and I’m worried it will turn into what Village became during the second half. Capcom better nail this hard. If it reviews well, I will be buying.

9. Pragmata

A very curious beginning and a new IP. Also from Capcom, this is another title I will be waiting for reviews. It’s a new project and I am interested, but it could flop and it’s quite risky to pre-order. It looks great and the demo has reviewed well. So I’ll keep an eye on the reviews and hopefully I end up buying Pragmata.

8. Saros

Underrated is the word of choice for Returnal and this is dependant on the difficulty for me, personally. I don’t expect it to be easier, or a cakewalk of sorts, but I’m hoping Housemarque take it easy this time around and if it is more difficult I’ll gladly skip this experience. If it reviews well and it’s easier I’ll buy.

7. 007 First Light

Quite an appropriate number. I’m not the biggest fan of James Bond in general, but this game looks promising. I except espionage, stealth, and chilled champagne. Reviews will decide this one for me.

6. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake

I wish it was the first game, but I understand the choice to remake the second game is the correct decision. I’m beyond stoked for this and I hope it sells well, so the first and third titles are also remade. I’ll say that I am strongly considering pre-ordering this, but I’ll wait for reviews. Hopefully it does as well as Silent Hill 2 did.

5. Marvel’s Wolverine

From a web slinger to the adamantium slasher. I will be absolutely pre-ordering this, since I hope dearly that this is an improvement, from the rushed and disappointing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. It looks fantastic and I can safely say it will be a banger of a game.

4. Crimson Desert

Ambition is the word for what Crimson Desert has showcased thus far. I won’t lie, I am very impressed by what I’ve seen so far and worried a slight bit. It seems too ambitious and it could be too good to be true. The risk is heavy and that’s why I will be buying. Because risks are meant to be taken.

3. Control: Resonant

As a player who managed to complete the first title, I’m very excited for the sequel and judging by my high love for Alan Wake 2, and the narrative, I’m absolutely stoked for what the folks at Remedy will be cooking up for the sequel. Another buy for me.

2. Phantom Blade 0

I would haven’t had this so high on a list at the start of this year, but I have been absolutely blown away by what I’ve seen so far of this game and I can’t praise it enough. It looks absolutely insane and I’m hoping this lives up to its expectations. It has the same hype as Black Myth: Wukong did, but I can see this performing extremely well. As soon as pre-orders open, I’m there.

1. Grand Theft Auto 6

What else could it possibly be? If Half-Life 3 is somehow released, that may well step up as a contender, but I can’t justify my absolute excitement and hype for the most anticipated video game of all time. Barring another possible delay, we may well be there for something special and I can’t wait to begin a new narrative and a new journey with Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2026.

Thank you so much for reading and here’s to a blessed 2026.

By reader Shahzaib Sadiq

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With news that Switch 2 sales have started to slow, a reader is worried that complacency and poor planning is spoiling the prospects for Nintendo’s new console.

Last year, the big story was that the Switch 2 had become the fastest selling console of all time. I think a lot of people found this a little odd, because there didn’t seem to be that kind of excitement behind it, but then Nintendo’s main audience isn’t necessarily hardcore gamers, so I think some of the appeal was lost even on long-term fans.

After launch, Donkey Kong Bananza was great and… the rest wasn’t. I didn’t get Pokémon Legends: Z-A but it seems to have got only mildly positive reviews. I did get Metroid Prime 4 though and that was a crushing disappointment, even though I thought I’d still appreciate it despite the flaws.

We’re now in 2026 and the only games that have a release date are Mario Tennis Fever next month and Pokémon Pokopia in March, not the most existing of games, I don’t think anyone would pretend. Beyond that you’ve got Yoshi And The Mysterious Book and a new Fire Emblem, which I’d also venture are not the most widely popular of Nintendo franchises.

They’re niche games, basically, and so was Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors, and Metroid Prime 4. I can see the logic in that that meant you had a Zelda and Kirby game for the launch year, but I think these games are only likely to put people off the main franchises, more than anything else.

I read with interest the report this week, about how Switch 2 sales have slowed, particularly in the US, and that Nintendo thinks that because it didn’t have any big Western games. I’m pretty sure that’s not the problem, so I can’t wait for that overreaction to make things worse. It wasn’t because the line-up was too Japanese it’s because it was niche games that aren’t popular in the West. I’d say that was a distinct difference.

And now that we are out of the launch year can we just admit that having no Zelda or Mario, or even the slightest hint of one, was a massive mistake. Given how well orchestrated the Switch 1 was I would’ve thought that repeating the same tricks would’ve been easy, but Nintendo seems to have ignored every lesson of their very long history.

We’ve got the 40th anniversary of Zelda, 30th anniversary of Pokémon, and a new Super Mario movie coming up soon and, as far as we know at the moment, no major games to tie in with any of them. Missing one anniversary is a mistake, missing three super obvious opportunities like this reeks of incompetence or being complacent.

I don’t know which it is but the more you look back at the Switch 2 with hindsight the more it seems like it was all rushed, with very little planning… which makes no sense, as Nintendo had all the time they needed to get ready and were not working under any kind of time limit.

I hate to say it, but they’re exhibiting Sony style arrogance, where they seem to think a minimum effort will be enough and that because their last console did well they don’t have to try so hard with the next one. I would never have guessed that’s how they’d be with the Switch 2, but I don’t know how else to explain it.

If there is a Nintendo Direct in February it needs to unveil a new Mario, some kind of Zelda game, and ideally a new IP. I do not want to sit through a 50 minute showcase telling me that they still don’t understand what was good about Mario Tennis 64 or that they the budget for the next Fire Emblem has been increased to £10 and a packet of crisps.

Unfortunately, I would be willing to bet that the second description is a lot closer to what eventually happens and that people are going to feel even more worried about the Switch 2’s future after the Direct is done.

By reader Gordo

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Despite constant frustration and badly dated gameplay, a reader can’t bring himself to completely hate the PlayStation 2 version of God Of War.

God Of War came out in 2005. I love the film Jason and the Argonauts and since gaming’s introduction to Kratos focused on similar themes and reviewed well, 20 years ago, the landmark title developed by Santa Monica Studio was a compulsory purchase for me.

Kicking off with a spot of giant Hydra trouble in the Aegean sea, the high level of polish and artistry in this game is immediately apparent. Ancient Greek exteriors and interiors are consistently atmospheric and handsomely realised. God Of War’s core mechanic is hacking and slashing, so it’s a relief that the combat here is beyond satisfying.

This is one of those games in which you look forward to a scrap, to unleash your many moves. As well as the iconic Blades of Chaos, and the lesser known Blade of Artemis, Kratos collects various magic attacks on his journey through the game’s levels. For me the highlight in this enchanted arsenal is the Army of Hades, obtained fairly late in the day, after defeating one of the game’s bosses. Activate the Army of Hades and a fiery demonic swarm materialises around Kratos and homes in, like a salvo of guided projectiles, on any local enemies.

Everything’s upgradable by gathering red orbs, which fly out of opened chests, vanquished enemies, and smashed objects. While you run around solving simple puzzles and slaying monsters you collect green orbs to replenish your health meter and blue orbs to fill up your magic meter. These meters can be extended by finding Gorgon’s eyes and phoenix feathers.

So there’s plenty to do while Kratos embarks on an epic quest which takes him and you to Athens, to the Temple of the Oracle, through the desert of Lost Souls, and on to Pandora’s Temple. The end goal here is to quell the bad dreams that haunt Kratos. In some sort of thematic duality, Pandora’s Temple is where the game starts to turn into a waking nightmare.

I’m fairly certain that 20 years ago I did finish this game. Tackling God Of War again now, I wonder how I managed. Reading other players’ comments on the internet the following hurdles are repeatedly mentioned:

That notorious jump over a certain second lava pit. The stingy amount of time allocated in the spike room. The desperate dash past spinning saw blades to access the Architect’s Tomb, before his door shuts in your face. And what about that bit in The Challenge of Hades, when you try not to fall to your death on narrow suspended planks, while at the same time double jumping over rotating blades that you can only see when they’re seconds away from hitting you?

Climbing those rotating spike towers in the Path of Hades often gets remarked upon as a place where one’s patience is tested to breaking point, but on this playthrough I found that fighting the Pandora Guardian was worse.

How could I complete those quick time events if the developers gave me insufficient time to do so? By doing a bit of research online it turned out that controlling the thumb stick with just my thumb was probably where I was going wrong. If I pinched the left stick around its edge with my thumb and finger I could match the lightning fast QTE prompts.

The final battle with Ares also uses QTE prompts, that appear and then cruelly disappear in a blink. I could only react fast enough to these prompts by holding down every face button on the DualShock 2. A messy and botched solution. Was it deliberate?

I have more issues with God Of War other than it started to make me hate gaming. Medusa was entirely wasted. Here the snake-haired Gorgon is sold short as a mid-level boss and a way of obtaining an, albeit interesting, magic attack.

Perhaps the best scene in the rather hit and miss 1981 movie Clash of the Titans is Perseus’s fight with Medusa. The sequence almost invites a direct video game conversation. Fight a terrifying foe by relying on your wits and the reflections in your shield. Try not to be put off by those lifelike statues that stand, crouch, and cower nearby.

And the advent of Pandora’s Temple is disappointing. Instead of leaping onto the summoned titan, that carries the temple on its back Shadow of the Colossus style, a potentially epic part of your quest is handled by a cut scene.

But it seems picky to complain. There’s much to enjoy here. An ancient city under siege. A fearsome bestial roll call, straight out of Greek mythology. You’ll swim through underwater domains that are eerie and peaceful. A dramatic sense of scale is used to great effect in one sequence.

Due to a representation of perspective, Kratos shrinks down to the size of an ant and yet you’re still able to control him. And the game’s epic score suits the onscreen mayhem perfectly. Although the sound that you might learn to love is the angelic call of the save points.

I cannot wholeheartedly recommend God Of War 2005. Parts of it are the gaming equivalent of deliberately slamming a door on your hand. However, if you have a penchant for classic monsters, swordplay and high adventure then you should definitely check out a certain Spartan’s debut because it is, for the most part, a brilliantly realised classic.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

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It might be a new year, but most gamers still have a large backlog of games to play before they get to any new ones, as one reader reveals his priorities – from Baldur’s Gate 3 to Spider-Man 2.

By the time you read this it will either be the new year or new year will be around the corner. Either way, happy 2026!

I thought I’d list the games I’m interested in that I haven’t yet played from the previous year and the games I intend to clear from my backlog also.

I dread to think how many games I’ve yet to finish or play. Most, thankfully, were either stupidly cheap or free. Here are six that I intend to dedicate some time to giving a good go at.

The backlog

6. Baldur’s Gate 3

I think this might be one of the worst purchases I’ve made. I was taken over by the hype at the time and bought this for pretty much full price, for the Steam Deck initially, and now have it for the Legion Go. It’s not a bad game but I just struggle, having never played any similar titles previously, and the combat confuses me. I might need to watch some instructional videos to learn the basics. However, I just don’t know when I’ll have the time, given it’s a big game.

5. Cyberpunk 2077

I’ve tried this a few times and never got far this time on Switch 2 was the furthest I’ve got into the game but got distracted by other games. I really want to like it but haven’t been gripped so far. I need to either commit and finish it or accept I’m just not that invested in it.

4. The Plucky Squire

When I first saw the trailer for this game I was sold and bought it almost as soon as it released. However, it’s kind of just fine. It looks very pretty and the gameplay is fine, although I find the stealth elements very annoying. If this was a long game I’d probably cut my losses, but I’ve heard it’s only a few hours long, so I’ll try and finish.

3. Resident Evil 7 and Village

I’ve played through these previously and in the case of Village I’ve played it twice. I have been meaning to replay Resident Evil 7 again at some point and wouldn’t mind playing both before Resident Evil Requiem comes out. Although I think Resident Evil 2, and in particular the remake, is the benchmark for the series, both 7 and Village are worthy sequels.

2. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man and Miles Morales were both games that I’ve enjoyed immensely and even have the Platinum for Spider-Man, which is a big deal for me. However, I’ve only played a few hours of the game on my Legion Go, after buying the PC version earlier this year. I don’t know why but I think perhaps I played the previous too much. I need to play it consistently over a few nights and then I’m sure I’ll get into it.

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I played this very briefly on my Legion Go via Game Pass. However, performance either natively or via cloud was inconsistent. Therefore, I got it for cheap at Black Friday for the PlayStation 5, as streaming it from the living room to my Legion Go via the PXPlay app works a treat. I think this will be the next game I play. My very brief first impressions are that the production, in terms of art design and soundtrack, seems very polished and the premise of the story seems intriguing but I’ve never really played turn-based games before, so worry that I won’t get through the reasonably long runtime.

My 2025 wishlist

5. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

I’ve never played any of the mainline Metroid games but did enjoy Metroid Dread. [Metroid Dread is a mainline entry; it’s the Prime games that’re spin-offs – GC] I was initially planning to get Metroid Prime 4 as I’m a bit of sucker for platform exclusives when I first get a new console. However, I’m slightly put off by some of the lukewarm reviews. I don’t know that I’ll get it for full price, but have seen it for £30 on Amazon Marketplace.

4. Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Again, I’ve never really played any in the series previously but did fancy giving this a try, especially now it’s on Switch 2. I did plan to get this with some money I’ll be getting for Xmas. However, I think I might wait. No doubt it’ll be heavily reduced in the near future and since it’s likely a hefty game I might wait until later in the year.

3. Dispatch

Although I do vaguely recall Metro’s review, this was a game that passed me by. However, after I saw it crop up on some best games of 2025 lists I watched the trailer. I haven’t played many point ‘n’ click type games but have enjoyed them when I do and I really like the look of Dispatch’s art style.

2. Ghost Of Yōtei

I played a bit of Ghost Of Tsushima earlier in the year via PS Plus and did plan on finishing it, but I had other games to play first and now my subscription to PS Plus has run out I might just splurge for the sequel instead. I haven’t played a Sony exclusive third person action game in a while and they used to be right up my street. If I’m honest though, I got a new TV free with my internet/TV package and I want a graphically impressive new game to test it out with.

1. Blue Prince

This game seems to be well regarded and I do like puzzle games and a good puzzle game isn’t always easy to come by. I might have to give this a try before my Game Pass runs out. My only slight issue is that I’ve heard you need to make notes and frankly I don’t know how feasible that is to do when playing in bed.

By reader matc7884

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A reader suggests that Capcom try and push the comedy elements of its games further, with an action parody based on Resident Evil or Dino Crisis.

I am a great fan of Resident Evil. I would probably say it is my favourite video game series and as a fan I have been eating pretty good the last several years. The remakes and new games have almost all been fantastic, with only Resident Evil 3 and, to a degree, Resident Evil Village, being a bit of a letdown.

I’m really looking forward to Resident Evil Requiem, because the buzz around that seems really good from everything I’ve read about it, but it’ll have to be really good to beat my favourite game of this generation: the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Considering the problems it had with adapting the original control system, I think it turned out amazing and I’ve played through it three whole times. I’m glad that it does keep some of the weird and funny dialogue, but they have cut it back, so it’s not as funny as the original, and that’s my one complaint against it.

I miss the cheesy camp of the early Resident Evil games and think they’re a really important part of the series. New games, like Village, have tried to recreate it but it’s difficult to do because originally they weren’t meant to be funny and then you’re just writing intentionally silly dialogue.

It’s not that that can’t be done well but it’s difficult and I don’t think Capcom has been entirely successful with it yet. But I’d really like them to try. Resident Evil 2 remake only had a few nods here and there to the old dialogue and tone; while trying to make some things more serious but I’d like a future game to go the other way.

What would be great is an alternative voice track, especially for Resident Evil 4, where it’s all meant to be a comedy, like a cross between Evil Dead and Airplane. You have different voice tracks for different languages in games, so I don’t see why you couldn’t have ones for different scripts.

Of course, it’d be even better if they redid the animations and everything or just went full-out and made a dedicated game that was a comedy.

Everyone wants Capcom to remake Dino Crisis, but they don’t really look like they’re going to. I’ve played the original recently and it is very old-fashioned and kind of silly, but it doesn’t have as funny dialogue as Resident Evil, with no really interesting characters. What would be really cool is if they did a reboot and it was played for laughs.

This time it could be Evil Dead and Jurassic Park, and that sounds really good to me. It could still be a proper game, with similar gameplay to the old Dino Crisis, but just make it intentionally funny. Heck, make it an actual remake but with jokes, that happens plenty of times in movies.

Comedy is already rare in video games and I think that’s just because it’s hard to do and the people they hire to write video games aren’t built for it. When you’re still giving examples of Monkey Island and Portal as the funniest games you know there’s a problem, because those games are old!

The only game I know that did hire comedians to write it was Lego City Undercover, of all things, and it was really funny. Or at least funnier than you’d expected and given it had to be family friendly. I’d love to see a similar thing happen on bigger scale and with a higher age rating.

I know it’ll probably never happen but so many games are just the same old thing, I feel companies should be trying to expand their horizons more. They’re always going on about attracting more people, but they always try to do it with the same old games. We’re at a point where if someone wanted to play a game they already would’ve done it, so they need something different to draw them in.

By reader Landon

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With the PS6 expected to be released in the next couple of years, a reader makes his predictions of what the hardware and games will be like.

Right at this moment we could be less than 12 months away from the unveiling of the PlayStation 6. There’s some talk that RAM shortages are going to delay the next generation but even then, I don’t think there’s any suggestion it’s going to be out any later than 2028.

Tech specs have already been leaked, but you can read into those whatever you like. The more interesting rumour to me, that even Sony has hinted at, is that they’ll also have a new portable out at the same time.

So, I feel there’s enough rumours and speculation around at the moment to make some logical predictions as to what’s going on. Especially as we have a good idea what the Xbox is going to do and how there might be new competition from Steam Machine.

These are my predictions for what the PlayStation 6 will be all about. It’s based on the next gen Xbox being nothing but a PC in a box, with a bonus prediction that it’ll end up being more expensive than the Steam Machine and therefore an enormous flop. But I don’t think Sony has to worry about that either way.

1. The difference in graphics is only going to be noticeable to Digital Foundry. I think everyone is already braced for this and I don’t think anyone is really blaming Sony, it’s just the way technology is nowadays. The big leaps are over and all we’ve got to look forward to is higher resolution and frame rates, and maybe a few new buzzwords like ray-tracing… which nobody will notice or really understand.
2. Despite the above I’m also expecting the PlayStation 5 to be super expensive. I don’t know tech stuff, so I don’t know why the smaller the improvement gets the more it costs, but I guess it’s just that it’s expensive to get even a minor upgrade nowadays. I’d expect as much or more than the PS5 Pro, which is around £700.
3. To counter the above I expect that the PlayStation 5 and 6 will be sold alongside each other for most or all of the generation. The PlayStation 5 would act as a cheaper option, a bit like the Xbox Series S, but also I expect every game to be cross-gen. I think rather than PlayStation 6 exclusives we’ll just have upgraded editions, a bit like the Switch 2.
4. In combination with the above, my best guess for what the portable is, is that it’s a portable PlayStation 5. I don’t know how close it’ll get to running games as well as the actual PlayStation 5 but like many I’m suspicious that the new Power Saver mode is secretly a way to get PlayStation 5 games to run on less powerful hardware which… I think is a pretty neat idea. I’ve no idea how expensive it’ll be but if it’s like a PlayStation Portal that can also run native games I think that’s pretty tempting.
5. It’s not actually that difficult to predict what the launch window games are going to be, based on what hasn’t been mentioned yet for the PlayStation 5. I think Horizon Zero Dawn 3 is almost certainly going to be the big launch game, especially as it’s known for its graphics, and that we’ll see something from the God Of War team, either a new entry or that new IP they’re rumoured to be working on. I would also expect a new Insomniac game, maybe that rumoured spin-off Venom that it’s weird we haven’t seen yet.

Am I going to proven right? I have no idea but if I am, remember where you heard it first!

By reader Tom Meadows

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As publishers continue to make less and less single-player games, a reader recommends Assassin’s Creed Shadows as one of the most enjoyable solo adventures of 2025.

I noticed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out on Nintendo Switch 2 next week and I’m honestly half tempted to buy it. I already have it on PlayStation 5, but I’ve enjoyed it so much I would honestly pay to experience it all again with the novelty of it being portable. I’m already resigned to it not winning any major awards but for me it is definitely my game of the year.

At the end of the day, game of the year just means what you’ve enjoyed the best and for me that is definitely Shadows. I tried Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 but while I could see the craft I just don’t really like that kind of role-player and in the end I regretted even getting it. I didn’t like the original Hades or Hollow Knight and while Donkey Kong Bananza was good, I feel it’s miss that extra spark to make it something special.

I’m sure lots of people would say the same about Assassin’s Creed Shadows but for me it worked. I’d say it’s easily the best Assassin’s Creed game and one of the best open world games I’ve ever played.

Assassin’s Creed has always been like comfort food to me. I know that could be seen as a negative but there is nothing I enjoy more than coming home from work and putting a couple of hours into a well design open world. and I don’t think I’m alone. In fact, I’m prepared to say that’s probably the secret of the franchise’s success.

I’m not trying to run the game down though. It has really good combat, two very different characters, and decent stealth. The story isn’t necessarily the best, but you always know what’s going on and it keeps everything ticking along.

The game is big and, like all Assassin’s Creed games, a little bloated but not so bad, in my opinion. There’s plenty of variety in missions and the graphics are fantastic. I feel the game overall is underrated but the graphics in particular are so good and with zero performance problems, despite the open world.

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about how big publishers don’t want to make single-player games anymore, even though that’s what everyone still prefers, and I feel a game like Shadows is exactly what most people are looking for. It’s literally the opposite of being clowned on in a game of Call Of Duty by a 12-year-old.

Shadows is a game where you’re in control of everything and you decide how and when you play it, not some young tyke in another country. Everything in Shadows is dedicated to entertaining me, and only me, and I don’t feel that’s the case with multiplayer games.

It might not be high art, even by the standard of other video games, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, and I feel sad at the idea that games like this may become more and more rare in the feature. To put my money where my mouth is though I’m going to pick up Star Wars Outlaws in the Black Friday sales and give that a go as well.

To split the difference I’ll get it on Switch 2, as I heard it’s a good port, and see how this sort of thing works on the go. I know fashions change over the years, but I never would’ve thought we’d be in a position where single-player games were becoming rare and you had to force yourself to support them or they might go away.

If that’s the reality of the situation though I can’t recommend Assassin’s Creed Shadows enough. But if it doesn’t seem like your sort of thing, because of the setting or the Ubisoft-ness or whatever, please just support whatever single-player game does take your interest, or otherwise they might become a thing of the past.

By reader Hackle

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With younger gamers increasingly only playing free-to-play games like Fortnite a reader argues that parents should introduce them to a wider range of options.

There has been a lot of stories lately about how people are no longer buying as many new games as they used to and most are still playing games that are five years older or more. Most of these are free-to-play games like Fortnite and Minecraft and while it’s a thing that seems to be affecting everyone (because who doesn’t want free games?) it’s most common with younger gamers.

We had that terrible story this week, that said that most children would rather have in-game currency, to speed on cosmetics, than anything physical for Christmas and that is just sad to me. I’m not looking to spoil anyone’s fun, you like what you like, but I have a very hard time believing these same kids wouldn’t enjoy proper games just as much, if only they were exposed to them more.

I’ve got nothing against Fortnite, or whatever, but only playing that game, for years and years? While knowing there’s a whole world of other, completely different, games out there as well. It seems like a literal hell to me. But maybe they don’t actually know about the other games, or if they do they’re not in a position to really come across them.

The price of triple-A games increasing to £70 is bad news for everyone, but just imagine being a young kid, or even a student, and you’re faced with that kind of price tag. Try and keep up with the yearly Call Of Duty or EA Sports FC and you’d be out of money in one go.

I think this is one of the things driving the popularity of indie games at the moment, because they’re usually relatively cheap and very imaginative (if they’re not yet another roguelike or Metroidvania). But as good as indie games are they’re not everything that video games can be, and it’s very hard to find the good ones if you don’t know what you’re looking for – which someone who plays nothing but Fortnite probably won’t.

Games take so long to make nowadays that if they have a gap or just aren’t very good for a game or two, they can easily fall out of the pop culture consciousness. Halo got announced for PlayStation 5 recently and there were genuine questions about whether younger gamers even knew what Halo is – and I feel there’s a lot of games in a similar situation to that at the moment.

If that keeps happening, then not only will younger people never know of such games but their lack of interest and support will mean those games don’t get made anymore and then it literally will be nothing but Fortnite and free-to-play games.

We’re at a point in history now where everyone has grown up with video games. They might not have ever been interested in them, but every parent today has played a video game and knows what they are – which is not how things were a few decades ago.

We’re also at a point where phones and tablets are being used as free babysitters to keep kids quiet and it ends up being all they know in terms of playing games (or watching movies, which is also worse on a phone compared to basically every other option). But a parent can introduce them to age appropriate titles, Nintendo at first but also things like the Lego games and Ratchet & Clank, depending on what formats you own.

Most kids are going to be experiencing the same thing so they’re not going to learn about the full breadth of gaming from each other and not from anywhere else really, unless they happen to come across the right kind of YouTubers. I think it’s only right that a parent doesn’t just leave it up to chance and tries to show them everything, to see what they’ll like.

It’s not a question of trying to push your likes onto your kids, as this already happens with music and movies, where parents expose their kids to what they like, intentionally or not. But with games I think it’s a bit different, there’s far less games appropriate for a young age so you have to make the effort to seek them out – it’s not like you should be showing your six-year-old Silent Hill 2.

Personally, I think it’s just good parenting. I often find the people who are not really into music or movies, and just go along with what’s popular, never really got a grounding in either from their parents. Specifically, I remember a colleague who knew almost nothing about music, to the point where it came across as weird, and he told me that his parents never really had records or the radio on in the house.

Parents have to give their children a head start with many things in life and I think art is part of that, and that definitely includes video games.

By reader Soldat

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With all PS5 models currently enjoying a major price cut, a reader tries to answer the difficult question of whether they’re worth it.

The PlayStation 5 is currently cheap in the Black Friday sales and there’s been a lot of people asking about whether it’s still worth jumping in to get the console now, when its replacement is probably only a few years away. In my opinion, that’s not an easy question to answer because the PlayStation 5 has got all the problems and benefits of most sequels, when the series has been going on for too long.

There’s not many film franchises where the fifth one is the best, not unless you’re a big fan of Attack of the Clones or Friday the 13th Part V. Instead, what you usually get by that point is a lot of nostalgia, a lot of repetition of old ideas, and maybe a half-hearted attempt to do something new that falls on its face.

The PlayStation 5 isn’t nearly that bad, it’s more like a mid-level James Bond film, where you still enjoy the formula even though you know it’s not really trying properly. Except, obviously, consoles aren’t movies and even when it’s underachieving the PlayStation 5 can’t help but be an amazing piece of hardware.

I call it the best console I’ve ever had simply because it is more powerful than the PlayStation 4 and it has great backwards compatibility. There are lots of great games, by Sony and others, and the DualSense is a really good controller.

The DualSense is probably it in terms of the major innovations but as many complaints as there for what the PlayStation 5 looks like – and there’s no question it is too big – it’s very quiet. I don’t know if you’ve used a PlayStation 4 lately, but those things sound like a jumbo jet taking off.

All the online features of the PlayStation 5 are good, the SSD is very quick, and there’s a lot of free patches for PlayStation 4 games that makes them run better. You can call it a small upgrade, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but there’s no question that the PlayStation 5 isn’t the best Sony console so far, in terms of graphics, gimmicks, and features.

The problem is that while it’s unquestionably better it’s by such a relatively small amount it’s very hard to get excited about. No wonder people are worried about the PlayStation 6, if that implies the improvement for that is going to be even smaller.

Most people always want to be playing with the best graphics but when the improvement is this minor you do question the price and the amount of effort Sony is making. But the worst thing is even those small improvements aren’t obvious in most games.

Ghost Of Yōtei and a few others look great but they’re rare and nothing so far has been worth buying a PlayStation 5 just to play them. It’s just about worth it, in my opinion, when you consider everything available on the console, but I’m not sure I could’ve even said that a couple of years ago, when there was less out.

Now that it’s five years old there’s just about to justify it, but the fact that it took that long says it all really. The PlayStation 5 has been a disappointment and underused in just about every aspect. But with the Xbox now dead it’s the only option for top of the range graphics and so many games are only available on it… and PC.

So, would I recommend the PlayStation 5? Yes, there’s almost no other choice. But do I think the PlayStation 5 has been a major letdown? Yes, that too.

By reader Gunther

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Upset at the lack of progress on a new Tomb Raider game, a reader makes some suggestions of how to improve Lara Croft’s next adventure.

There was an update this week on the new Tomb Raider, and it did not shock me when it turned out to be bad news. For the third time, developers have been laid off at Crystal Dynamics and there’s still no sign of the game being announced any time soon, let alone released.

The new game was announced back in 2021 and we’ve seen absolutely nothing of it so far. There’s no word on what it will be like, just that it will ‘unify the classic and reboot timelines’, which tells you nothing. I’m of the age that the original Tomb Raider on PS1 was a very formative game and at the time I always imagined it would be one of those series that would go on forever.

At first it did but then we got to Angel Of Darkness and everything started to go wrong. Things picked up again with the reboot trilogy but by the end of that I’d become sick of psycho Lara and turning the whole game into a generic third person shooter, with a little bit of stealth. I wanted a new game to go back to the series’ roots but I’m starting to worry it’ll never happen at all.

There’s lots of video game series that haven’t been looked after well over the years, but Tomb Raider has got to be the worst. Looking back at it now, with adult eyes, it’s clear that they were just churning them out as fast as possible back in the PS1 days, with no thought about where they were going or how they were going to stop people getting tired of the formula.

Angel Of Darkness was meant to shake things up, but it was a complete technical mess and I don’t think I really liked any part of it, including the story. The only thing I’d say for it is it was set a lot in ordinary locations, rather than only in rocky caves and the like.

I always felt that the obvious way to expand on Tomb Raider was to make Lara a more general action star, so she could have fights and car chases in cities but also tomb-raiding in remote places and weird locations. In the old days they always used to compare Lara to a female James Bond and on the PS1 you could see them try to expand the locations as they went along.

For some reason, the reboot trilogy was all very one note though, mostly just non-descript jungles and the odd snowy mountain. That’s a part of Tomb Raider, for sure, but it really needed to move beyond that. If you’re getting beaten by a PS1 game, for the variety of your locations, then something’s not going right.

A lot has been said about how boring and serious Lara was in the reboot series and I would agree with that. But I would expand that and say there’s basically no interesting characters in any of the games. For me, this is one of the main failures, that should’ve been easy to fix with modern consoles, especially the fact that there’s no recurring or iconic villains.

The stories are also super forgettable and the things she’s after are always uninteresting. I think it’s been a mistake to base things on various mythologies and lost artefacts, because it just feels like she’s after whatever hasn’t been used by Indiana Jones yet and it all comes across as dealing with the scraps.

What I’d do is make things more based on fictional things, like have her run into a Cthulhu cult or do something proper with the dinosaurs that used to appear in the early games. This was never explained and I really don’t know how she’s not gone to a ‘lost world’ or Savage Land equivalent yet. Instead, we got weird zombie samurai for some reason.

There’s so much more you could with Tomb Raider, but I’m worried that even if this new game does manage to come out it’ll be another reboot that’ll rerun the old games again with better graphics. As much as I Iove those old games they could be so much better today, if they expanded beyond what they were 29 years ago.

It’ll be 30 next year, so hopefully we’ll find out something about what’s going on then, but I’m not hopeful that it’ll be anything close to what I think the series needs.

By reader Cranston

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