PC Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2025

[Zed Clampet]

PC Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2025

Our favourite PC games of the year.

www.pcgamer.com

I didn't see where anyone had posted this. It might be mentioned in another thread.

Best Adventure Game 2025 – Old Skies​

Best Immersive Sim 2025 – Skin Deep​

Best Horror 2025 – Labyrinth of the Demon King​

Best Cozy Game 2025 – Promise Mascot Agency​

Best Roguelike 2025 – Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor​

Best Comedy 2025 – Baby Steps​

Best FPS 2025 – Battlefield 6​

Best Characters 2025 – Dispatch​

Best Action 2025 – Hollow Knight: Silksong​

Best Co-op 2025 – Abiotic Factor​

Best Multiplayer 2025 – Arc Raiders​

Best Story 2025 – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33​

Best Design 2025 – Blue Prince​

Game of the Year 2025 – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2​

 

[Zed Clampet]

If you'd like to know which of those are incorrect, let me know.

I haven't played Split Fiction, but just based on what other people have said about it, I was kind of surprised that Abiotic Factor won for best co-op. Abiotic Factor is a very good game, though, and deserving of the recognition.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is 50 percent off right now. I've never played it, but by my philosophy, it feels right that a grand, open world game takes the honors. As much as I loved Balatro, it just didn't feel right to me that it won GOTY.

 

[dxchase]

I agree with these choices (especially MP of the year haha) mostly, i dont think KCD2 is a GOTY but its certainly a great game i dont want to be talkin down on.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I agree with these choices (especially MP of the year haha) mostly, i dont think KCD2 is a GOTY but its certainly a great game i dont want to be talkin down on.

I've only played two games on the list, so it's hard for me to really argue with it.

 

[Zloth]

"Best immersive sim" might be "Only immersive sim," too. At least I didn't hear about any others.

 

[Zed Clampet]

"Best immersive sim" might be "Only immersive sim," too. At least I didn't hear about any others.

Unless you go by Steam tags. Then there were hundreds. People are very discerning with it. /s

 

[Pifanjr]

I haven't played any of the games and don't have particularly strong opinions on the list. KC2 winning makes sense considering PCGamer staff is generally really fond of RPGs.

Unless you go by Steam tags. Then there were hundreds. People are very discerning with it. /s

Apparently Abiotic Factor is listed as an immersive sim as well, it could've gotten two awards! Other than that it's a lot of games with "simulator" in the title that people apparently find very immersive.

 

[Frindis]

I didn't agree with BF6. I tried it and felt like a COD clone. Unfortunately, does not look like they understand what formula once made the BF series a great one.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I haven't played any of the games and don't have particularly strong opinions on the list. KC2 winning makes sense considering PCGamer staff is generally really fond of RPGs.



Apparently Abiotic Factor is listed as an immersive sim as well, it could've gotten two awards! Other than that it's a lot of games with "simulator" in the title that people apparently find very immersive.

You know, now that I think about it, Abiotic Factor really is an immersive sim. Users actually got one right.

 

[Pifanjr]

You know, now that I think about it, Abiotic Factor really is an immersive sim. Users actually got one right.

Relevant article:

Nobody can agree what an 'immersive sim' is, but OG Fallout lead Tim Cain has his own definition: 'The very elements that make something an immsim are the ones that I also think make good RPGs'

Lots of games are immersive, lots of games are simulations, but which ones nail both qualities a la Deus Ex?

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Johnway]

overall i guess the decisions all look ok to me. The only one i woulds take issue with is perhaps the Labyrinth of the Demon King or Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor as the best rogue like. As to what would replace them i wouldn't really know. maybe Hades 2 for best rogue like, but horror i can't think of much recently released to add to it.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Relevant article:

Nobody can agree what an 'immersive sim' is, but OG Fallout lead Tim Cain has his own definition: 'The very elements that make something an immsim are the ones that I also think make good RPGs'

Lots of games are immersive, lots of games are simulations, but which ones nail both qualities a la Deus Ex?

www.pcgamer.com

Yeah, it basically fits his definition as well as anything I've played with one major exception; however, his definition seems to be aspirational as much as anything because I've never seen nor heard about a game where "those rules interact with each other to create a large number of emergent systems". Seriously, what game actually has a large number of emergent systems? In Prey, the only emergent system anyone has ever mentioned is the foam gun. So are there tons of things like the foam gun in Prey? Because immsim players all agree that it's an immsim. Then you have physics and box stacking. So if I put a foam gun and box stacking in my game, is that a "large" number of emergent systems? It just seems to me that the way he describes it has not been achieved yet unless it is Minecraft, which would probably cause immsim players to freak out. But is there anything within reason that you can't do in Minecraft? Is there anything you can't do with redstone and a command block? Throw in pistons and other things. None of it was designed to do anything in particular, but just to be tools for the player's emergent creativity. While a Prey player is congratulating himself for making a foam ramp, the Minecraft player has created a 300 meter long machine that automates all the farming. etc.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Pifanjr I have a huge weakspot in this area, though. I've never played Deus Ex.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr I have a huge weakspot in this area, though. I've never played Deus Ex.

Neither have I, but it does feel like a lot of games labelled as "immersive sim" are just games that are similar to Deus Ex and System Shock. Whereas the definition given in that article makes me think more of Dwarf Fortress or even finding unintended solutions in The Incredible Machine.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Neither have I, but it does feel like a lot of games labelled as "immersive sim" are just games that are similar to Deus Ex and System Shock. Whereas the definition given in that article makes me think more of Dwarf Fortress or even finding unintended solutions in The Incredible Machine.

EXACTLY! They are describing games that they don't even recognize because they are only concerned with shooters, which are the least immersive sim like games I can think of.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Neither have I, but it does feel like a lot of games labelled as "immersive sim" are just games that are similar to Deus Ex and System Shock. Whereas the definition given in that article makes me think more of Dwarf Fortress or even finding unintended solutions in The Incredible Machine.

So the real definition is that an Immersive Sim is a shooter that tries to emulate genres that have emergent gameplay?

 

[Pifanjr]

So the real definition is that an Immersive Sim is a shooter that tries to emulate genres that have emergent gameplay?

It doesn't even have to be a shooter. It's a first person action game that relies on players using the rules of simulated systems to solve their problems instead of only/mostly relying on specific scripted interactions.

But I feel like we've gotten slightly off topic. Maybe one of the mods can move this to a separate thread (@Frindis ?)

 

[Zed Clampet]

It doesn't even have to be a shooter. It's a first person action game that relies on players using the rules of simulated systems to solve their problems instead of only/mostly relying on specific scripted interactions.

But I feel like we've gotten slightly off topic. Maybe one of the mods can move this to a separate thread (@Frindis ?)

What is one more post to move?

No, it actually does have to be a shooter. Because the people who made this up are shooter people who apparently don't realize that emergent systems exist in greater number and complexity in other genres. They are like an isolated, Amazonian tribe. And it would be rude for more advanced people, like me and, to a lessor degree, you, to come in here and dazzle them with our learning and make them lose faith in the things that give them purpose, like bananas and immersive sims.



No, I don't have any idea what I am talking about, but that's never stopped me before...When you get as advanced as I am, sent me DM!