The 10 Best Gaming Surprises Of 2025

I feel like a broken record, but once again, in many ways this was a bad year for developers, gamers, and the industry writ large. But hey, just because AI slop is ruining everything and greedy execs are destroying pop culture, that doesn’t mean we can’t find some joy and genuinely great moments in all the bullshit. Like we’ve done in years past , here we’ve collected 10 of the best video game surprises and bits of good news from the past year. Hold on to them tightly. Cherish them. Reread this list a few times. Remember that things can be good. Hope is important. We’ll likely need a lot of it to get through 2026. Elden Ring Nightreign Rules Elden Ring Nightreign Rules The average person seems pretty burnt out on live-service multiplayer games. Fans had every reason to respond with groans and sighs to the idea of the premier action-RPG maker turning its attention and resources to exactly that- an online multiplayer game -instead of toward its next single-player adventure. But FromSoftware delivered with Elden Ring Nightreign . It didn’t just successfully nail multiplayer Elden Ring; it produced an entire new mash-up of genres that I wish more games would try to experiment with. Do you need close friends to get maximum enjoyment? Sure. But unlike some of the friendslop turning heads out there this year, Nightreign ‘s magic goes far beyond capturing hot mics and silly moments. (It’s great for that too, though.) I now expect great things from The Duskbloods and would love to see FromSoftware reimagine Armored Core PVE for the modern era. -Ethan Gach Star Wars: Fate of The Old Republic Announced Star Wars: Fate of The Old Republic Announced The 2025 Game Awards started off with a super-surprising announcement: Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic . This is a new single-player RPG from Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect director Casey Hudson, and is a spiritual successor to KOTOR . Holy shit, folks! Sure, it ain’t KOTOR 3, but it’s likely the closest we’ll ever get to that game, and that alone has fans excited. Before you start getting too hyped to play Fate of the Old Republic, it should be noted that the studio working on FOTOR was formed just a few months ago, so this game is likely five or more years away from release and could launch on PlayStation 6 or even PS7. Hudson denies this, however, and claims it will be out before 2030. I want to believe him, but I’m not sold on that being possible unless Fate of the Old Republic is much smaller in scope than most AAA RPGs. We’ll just have to wait and see, and hope this one doesn’t get canceled. Digital Foundry And Giant Bomb Going Fully Independent Digital Foundry And Giant Bomb Going Fully Independent The digital games media space has never been more pervasive, thanks to creator platforms like TikTok and YouTube, but it’s also never been less...

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