Talking Point: What's Your Xbox Game Of The Year For 2025 So Far?

Assassin's Creed Shadows and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

I know Expedition 33 will be first in the poll, but I don't think it's for me (currently giving it another chance, act 2).

For me it's Doom The Dark Ages , followed by Monster Train 2 and South of Midnight.

For me expedition 33 then elden ring and finally doom dark ages!!

Expedition 33. I haven't heard of anything coming out in the next few years that I think might be better.

Atomfall, Blue Prince, Avowed.
Have yet to play Clair Obscur and I haven't finished Doom yet, otherwise I suspect they'd be duking it out for first place.
Still, Atomfall was amazing and pretty much what I wanted it to be.

I'm ancient and hardly represent any gamers other than myself, but for me my list was as follows:

1. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
2. South of Midnight
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

On that list there's only Doom The Dark Ages I've really put any time into, so it wins by default but I'd also say its a very good game and in my top 3 overall so far this year, just behind Mario Kart World and with Death Stranding 2 at the top. In terms of the modern Doom games, I prefer it to Eternal but Doom 2016 is still the best of them.

Just a bit of a shame Oblivion has such performance issues as I really want to continue playing that as well

Despite gaming every day for extended periods of time, of that list, I have only played to completion two games, and started but not finished a further two games. The reason I have two unfinished games being because my mate, with whom I play them, is busy playing Expedition 33, and as his time is limited, we've not got round to finishing them.

My votes went as follows:

Expedition 33
Doom: The Dark Ages
Split Fiction

In case it wasn't obvious Split Fiction is the game on that list that I have yet to finish.

The other game that I have yet to finish is Sniper Elite: Resistance, though I'm not sure we will finish as frustratingly, I keep getting kicked out of the game and losing everything that I had previously collected.

Kind of odd though that I game so much, yet have played so few of the titles on the list...

Clair Obscur without a doubt. Not only my GoTY so far but probably my favorite game of all time. Just amazing in every way.

Civ7
Doom dark ages
Avowed

1 KCD2 - a truly great game if you are willing to give it the time it needs.

2 Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - the second part didn’t live up to the first, but it more than made up for last year’s slightly disappointing LiS game.

3 The Precinct - good fun.

Clair obscur expedition 33. Looks beautiful, sounds better, story is great, gameplay is awesome. Other games might hit some of these notes or most, but clair hits all of them. Personally.

1. Clair Obscure: Expedition 33
2. Avowed
3. South of Midnight

1) Clair Obscur Expedition 33
2) Doom: The Dark Ages
3) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I got every trophy/achievement for all of these games, and that’s a testament to how special I think each one is. It has been a fantastic year of gaming, and I’ve yet to play some of the other popular titles released this year, such as Atomfall, Avowed, South of Midnight, and a few others.

E33. No exceptions. What an absolutely amazing game. That's what you get when you get a small team run on pure passion.

Doom The Dark Ages is my highlight so far.
2nd is Split Fiction.
And 3rd was struggle between Sniper Elite Resistance and WWE 2K25.

Clair Obscur and it's not even close

1- Clair Obscure
2- KCD 2
3- The First Berserker Khazan

An absolutely awesome year for gaming. Next on my radar is Wuchang Fallen Feathers

@Ricky-Spanish almost the same for me, e33 and Nightreign, but I've got Oblivion in 3rd.

It would be more difficult if I had played a second 2025 game 😅 so it’s Clair Obscur by default. If they ever put out a South of Midnight physical release though I’d be all up ons

I would say South of Midnight. That game was an absolute gem from start to finish as well as welcome representation of sorts. Binged it launch weekend and then bought it right after. Had to have it in the collection.

@Jenkinss I would ofput the elder scrolls in aswell but I can't do a top 3 of the games without included elden ring even though it shouldn't really be on the list considering it came out last year but the remake is great aswell and south of midnight

Split Fiction, easily.

The only other 2025 game I’ve played on Xbox this year is South of Midnight. It was alright, fairly decent, but couldn’t hold a candle to the co-op masterpiece that is Split Fiction.

My overall 2025 GOTY will very likely end up being a toss-up between Split Fiction and Metroid Prime 4.

Hello there fellow gamers.
My top three Xbox Series X games of 2025 so far are:

• Clair Obscur Expedition 33;
• Assassin´s Creed Shadows;
• Ninja Gaiden Black.
  Hopefully, the next ones of this year for me will be:
• The Outer Worlds 2;
• Ninja Gaiden 4;
• Wuchang Fallen Feathers.
  And that´s just on Xbox. There´s quite a few others on both my PS5 and Switch 2 as well.
  Lot´s of good games to play all around.
  Cheers and happy gaming everyone

I’m loving all of the South of Midnight shoutouts! It’s not perfect, but it truly is a special game.

Personally, my top 3 include:

South of Midnight
Blue Prince
Doom the Dark Ages

Doom: The Dark Ages for me. Expedition 33 is second.

Doom: The Dark Ages
Avowed
Split Fiction

I went for Oblivion.

It is now 12 months since I unsubscribed from GPU, so haven't played the others on the list. Looking forward to picking some of them up in the summer (or winter) sales with the £180 saved on my sub so far

Probably go with Oblivion. I tried every other Game Pass game that has come out this year. They are always ok, but never great enough to blow me away.