Game of the Year 2025 Number 1 - 5

This was a hefty year for me and video games. Probably because everything around us is crumbling and terrible and video games were one of the easier disassociation techniques. 

Now the "as always disclaimer" is that these are not games that came out in 2025, just games I played in 2025. I don't have the time to stay up to date on all the newest games. (God damned adult job)

Here's what we've looked at so far

• Games 28-18
• Games 17-6

5. Star Wars Outlaws

• Hardware: PlayStation 5
• Release Year: 2024

I think this is the only one of two games I played on the PlayStation 5 this year. That's some sort of condemnation of console game. I can't believe they are talking about a PlayStation 6, when it feels like the PlayStation 5 hasn't gotten much love. But anyway, that's not why you are here. 

Star Wars Outlaws is the game I've wanted for decades. Instead of redoing the, "down on your luck, lost, aimless, citizen to Jedi pipeline," you're just a dirtbag with a heart of gold. No lightsaber needed. This is the Han Solo game, although much less charismatic. But that's good. That makes all the trouble feel believable. 

You get to travel at high speeds across planets on speeder bikes. You get to infiltrate Imperial Star Destroyers. You get to make business deals in shady cantinas. You get to play one of three gangs off of each other, each giving you a benefit or punishment. 

This was an Ubisoft checklist game, but it didn't feel bogged down like some of the more recent Assassin's Creeds have. Many of the checkmarks were behind puzzles or stealth instead of simply climbing a thing. 

May the 4th Be With You - A Star Wars Videogame ranking

I've been a Star Wars fan since I can remember. 

My parents taped Return of the Jedi off of network TV around 1990, and I wore the tape out.

I rented a New Hope from the library. By the time I saw Empire, I was already buying books with schematics of the ships and Timothy Zahn books.

I play almost every Star Wars game that comes out, so over 40 years, I've played a lot of games. 

I feel like I'm missing something from this list, but I can't figure out what it is, so with that caveat here's my definitive list

Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga

Age of Empires II is probably the height that the RTS genre will ever reach. I know there's an argument in there for Blizzard's RTS games and there's probably a couple people that would fight for Command and Conquer, but they are wrong, it's Age of Empires II.

I spent hours setting up LAN parties between my brothers and I, and we would have epic three hour long battles against the A.I. I'd hold the line with Teutonic knights, keeping their annoying small groups away from our early civilizations, while my brothers constructed siege equipment before laying waste to our enemies one by one.

The Sparse Population of Games

For the longest time, one of the ways to show off your new hardware (other than cars) was by showing screenshots with a ton of people rendered on it.

I was planning on buying a Playstation 3 until late one night on G4, I saw a trailer for Dead Rising, boasting it's hundreds of zombies on the screen at once. I almost threw up from excitement. I went out the next week and bought a Xbox 360.

On the flip side of this, it's really noticeably when a game is supposedly set in a major city, but is sparsely populated.

The Star Wars games seem to stick out, probably because of how many creatures roam the streets in the films.

I was recently playing Star Wars Bounty Hunter on the Gamecube and while was chasing down targets and having blaster fights with some of the dumbest guards in the galaxy, I realized that I'm on Coruscant, supposedly the most populated city in the galaxy, and there are only 10-15 residents hanging out.


And then I started thinking about other Star Wars games.

All the Battlefront games take place on what should be mostly populated maps, but there I am, killing Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley with 31 other soldiers and no one else.

KOTOR attempted to populate it's worlds with those really awkward NPCs that sort of stand around until you approach. But there were still large swaths of land in these cities with no one in them.

Even the Force Unleashed, a newer Star Wars game was often only populated by enemies. Yes, you were often attacking Imperial strongholds, but the Imperials often built their strongholds in major cities.

It's a dumb thing to complain about, but it's one of those things that bothers me.