It’s the first week of the year, which means it’s time for one of our favorite annual traditions: the annual games preview that includes at least one game from last year’s annual games preview. This year Skate Story goes back-to-back; who will get that special honor in 2026? Read on to find out which game out of our 10 picks for the most anticipated games of 2025 is the one we think is most likely to become one of our most anticipated games of 2026. Hopefully all 10 of the games below will actually be out this year, and hopefully they won’t be swamped by the tidal waves of hype that will accompany the expected releases of Grand Theft Auto VI (yes, they’re finally releasing a new one, instead of just squeezing GTA V fans with more microtransactions) and the Switch 2. (The 2025 release of the latter is entirely guesswork on the part of the games press, albeit very well-informed guesswork, but it does feel like time for a Switch upgrade; the original will be eight years old in March, after all.) Either way, we’ll be here to play these games whenever they come out, and to share our passionate, deeply informed opinions about them—as long as we’re still getting paid to.
Here’s what the editors of Paste’s games section are most excited to play in 2025.
Hyper Light Breaker
Platform: PC
Release Date: Jan. 14 (Early Access)
I’d normally be reluctant to put an early access game on this list, but Hyper Light Breaker is out in the first two weeks of the year, so it seems like a solid bet that it’ll see its “official” release before 2025 is up. The follow-up to Hyper Light Drifter, a roguelike action-RPG inspired by the early NES and SNES Zelda games, jumps into the third dimension, doing to the original what Ocarina of Time did to its retro inspirations. Like the original, it’ll have co-op multiplayer, so you’ll be able to explore its randomized worlds with friends (or friendly strangers). We’re interested to see if Hyper Light Breaker can stand out amid the countless number of rogue-tinted games that have come out since Drifter‘s 2016 release (nine years is absolutely a good chunk of time, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been nearly that long since 2016). What we’ve seen so far has us feeling hopeful.—Garrett Martin
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Jan. 30
The original Citizen Sleeper realized a sci-fi world full of nuanced characters, and what I’ve seen of its sequel points to much of the same. You once again play as a Sleeper, an artificially created person treated as company property. However, a big difference this time around is that you’re not constrained to a single space station, instead traversing the cosmos as you hop between ports to find work and a way out. Unsurprisingly, Gareth Damian Martin’s writing is as sharp as ever, portraying a star system defined by cruel economic systems and fleeting moments of kindness as people band together to weather this broken world. And beyond its prose landing, the tabletop RPG-inspired decision system has received a shot in the arm, encouraging you to build a team with complementary skills to help get a leg up on the many dice rolls and ability checks during missions. While it’s asking a lot for this sequel to reach the heights of the original game, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector has a real shot at doing just that. —Elijah Gonzalez
Civilization VII
Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: Feb.11
Look at that platform list: yes, there have been Civ games on consoles for decades, but it’s always been a computer game, first and foremost, with ports and spinoffs released later on for your PlayStations and Xboxes and whatnot. Not Civilization VII, though; for the first time in its 34-year-history the preeminent strategy game will be hitting consoles at the same time as PC, and you’ve got to wonder how that will impact the way it’s played. Civ is basically the grandaddy of the (impenetrably named) “4X” genre (or, as I call them to normal people who aren’t hip to opaque games lingo, “games that are kinda like Civilization”), which stands for “explore, expand, exploit and exterminate,” and I imagine we will once again be doing a fair amount of all four activities in Civ VII. This Civ adds a number of new facets to its traditional gameplay, while streamlining some aspects, eliminating others, and making it all look and sound better than ever—basically doing what you expect (and hope for) a new Civ to do.—Garrett Martin
2XKO
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: TBD
Having already played dozens of hours of Riot’s upcoming League of Legends spinoff, 2XKO, I can confirm that this tag fighting game seems to have the sauce. Heavily inspired by series like Marvel vs. Capcom, you construct a team of two combatants, swapping between them as you set up messed-up mix-ups and deadly pressure. One particularly notable element is that attacks are performed with simplified inputs, meaning you don’t need to do half-circle motions or any other joystick contortions that seem to frequently trouble genre newcomers. However, despite offering many considerations for beginners, it also appears to have a great deal of depth for veterans, allowing for complex combos and tricky maneuvers. You can switch between your characters at almost any time, setting up lots of side-switching and other tricky-to-block antics. While in the Alpha Lab, combos were too long and damage output could be a bit extreme, the developers have already acknowledged these criticisms and promised to make changes for the full game. Thanks to its freeform mechanics, 2XKO seems like it will offer ample room for player expression and partially address the Arcane-shaped hole in my heart without requiring me to play League of Legends. —Elijah Gonzalez
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: TBD
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has an enticing plot setup. Every year, the Paintress renders a new number on her monolith, and as the brushstroke falls, everyone the same age as the painted number fades into dust. You play as members of Expedition 33, the latest in a long line of explorers aiming to kill the Paintress and stop this cycle. It’s a great premise further sold by striking art direction that offers a dreamlike twist on Belle Époque France, full of surreal melted backdrops and impossible architecture. Gameplay-wise, Clair Obscur is a turn-based RPG with timing-based button prompts reminiscent of games like the Mario RPGs, a style that frequently adds a nice mechanical twist to this genre. Add some sharp presentation inspired by the Persona games, and you have a very intriguing mishmash. One of the biggest issues with the modern AAA game industry is the general absence of memorable non-sequels, and Sandfall Interactive’s debut has a great chance to counter this trend. —Elijah Gonzalez
Doom: The Dark Ages
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: TBD
Even as someone who was a tad disappointed with the Doom Slayer’s previous outing, it’s hard not to be excited for Doom: Dark Ages considering how unapologetically rad id Software’s output is at their best. The latest installment in this gore-soaked series is a prequel, following our perpetually angry protagonist as he rips and tears in a sci-fi medieval setting. While we mostly just have a single trailer to go off, this teased an interesting arsenal, including the series’ iconic boomstick, a new weapon that uses crushed demon skulls as ammo, and a bladed shield that doubles as a boomerang. Maybe the most exciting detail is that this shield can be used to parry, which is good news because it is a universally acknowledged fact that all games are better when you can parry. While the large environments shown have me a tad worried that this prequel will double down on its predecessor’s misguided emphasis on platforming and exploration (not to sound like a meathead, but I really only want to be shooting demons in these games), all the frenetic monster blasting was enough to trigger a Pavlovian response, calling to mind the previous games’ hypnotic combat arenas. Hopefully, this latest entry will see the Doom Slayer back on top (of a mound of dead cacodemons). —Elijah Gonzalez
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Platform: Nintendo Switch (…or could it be the Switch 2? Maybe both?)
Release Date: TBD
Any list like this is guaranteed to have at least one game that doesn’t actually come out that year, and given its absurdly tangled and protracted development, I kinda think Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is this list’s pick. Nintendo first teased this thing so long ago that it was at an E3 (!) that I actually went to (!!), which right there tells you it’s been forever. It’s had a complete restart, moving from Bandai Namco to the remnants of Retro Studios, who made the original Prime trilogy, and that all happened over a year before the pandemic even started. I know the games business is no stranger to long delays and tumultuous development periods, and Metroid Prime 4 wouldn’t even come close to the longest gap between announcement and release (assuming it actually comes out this year). But its future has felt especially tenuous given the high-profile stop-and-start nature of its development and the general lack of confidence Nintendo seems to have in Metroid overall. Hopefully 2023’s excellent Metroid Prime Remastered has everybody all pumped up for more Prime time, and will compel Nintendo to actually drag this game across the finish line.—Garrett Martin
Skate Story
Platform: PC
Release Date: TBD
Skateboarding games are usually pretty straightforward. You’ve got a board, you skate around places familiar from real life (streets, parks, cities, schools), and try to chain together the most spectacular tricks you can pull off, without ever having to worry about the health or safety of your onscreen character. Skate Story seems to nail the skating part, but otherwise this is an entirely different beast, one where you play as a demon made of glass trying to swallow the moon in hopes of getting out of Hell. Sam Eng’s supernatural skate-off promises a stylish and metaphoric take on the standard skating game, presumably one without any SoCal pop-punk on the soundtrack. Will it mark a new highwater mark for skating games, an unnecessarily artistic adornment of a fairly utilitarian genre, or something in-between? I guess we’ll have to play it to find out.—Garrett Martin
South of Midnight
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: TBD
I am from the South, which means I am inherently defensive against anything and anybody that doesn’t understand what “the South” is in 2025. I’m also more than a little tired of “Southern Gothic” as a concept; we are not some weird, mysterious fantasy land for outsiders to fetishize, but a real place with real people and real problems and various different cultures coexisting together. (That’s one reason Jody Hill and Danny McBride’s work for HBO is so crucial: they understand what the modern South is and portray it honestly and matter-of-factly.) So when I heard that the Canadian studio behind the overbaked The Prisoner-meets-Bioshock swingin’ ’60s game We Happy Few were making a game set in the Deep South, based on Southern folklore, and with enemies called “Haints”… well, yeah, I almost gave up writing about games entirely that day. So why is South of Midnight on this list, then? I learned that the creative lead, David Sears, is actually Southern, and from the genuine Deep South, born and raised in Mississippi. There’s still every chance this game will rub me the wrong way, but with Sears overseeing it there’s some hope it won’t be too obnoxious in its mystification.—Garrett Martin
Unbeatable
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: TBD
Announced several years ago, Unbeatable is an anime-inspired rhythm game that also happens to have an absolute scorcher of a trailer. Set in a world where music is illegal, Beat and her band are on the run from the cops. This experience is split into two parts: rhythm game segments with a two-button layout and story-focused stretches where you explore the world. Having played the demo, it seems like the music sections have a surprising amount of depth despite the simple button scheme as you slam notes, hold chords, and jump over incoming obstacles. But perhaps the biggest selling point is that outside of these sequences, you explore a punk rock world that balances the bombast of Studio Trigger with some more introspective beats. For instance, the protagonist has a searching quality that is quite compelling, and the central band seems to have good chemistry based on the snippets of dialogue I’ve seen. Unbeatable has been a long time coming, and I’m very much looking forward to it finally hitting the stage. —Elijah Gonzalez
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, TV, travel, theme parks, wrestling, music, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.
Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11 and on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.