It’s that time of year, folks, the time where the P2 crew sit around the proverbial campfire and argues over the highs and lows of the year. That’s right, it is award season. Join us as we take a look at what excited, surprised and disappointed us in 2025. Now it is time for the final award, The AAA Game of the Year.
The 2025 P2 Game Awards - AAA Game of the Year
Matt Hewson - Dying Light: The Beast
Whenever it comes to picking this award, and I have been doing it for a long time now, I bring it down to that simple yet somewhat intangible idea of fun. How much fun did I have with the game? This year, I played a lot of titles that entertained me, engaged me and dragged me along for the ride. The Samurai double of both AC: Shadows and Ghosts of Yotei, the Frenchified JRPG that was Clair Obscur, the cool mix of world-building and choice and consequence of both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2. But no other game gave me more pure fun than Dying Light: The Beast
This feels like the perfect third entry in a series that feels a little underappreciated. It mixes the horror experience of the first game with the power fantasy of the second to really nail the concept of a parkour-based zombie-survival title. The story was a ripper, the gameplay top notch, and it had honestly some of the best side missions I have played since Geralt met the Baron. Throw in the franchise’s staple elements of excellent movement and a day/night cycle that really changes things up, and you have a fantastic achievement from Techland and a must-play for action/FPS fans everywhere.
Paul James - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was certainly on my most anticipated list going into 2025, but I was holding back my excitement somewhat, because typically games don’t come out of nowhere as it did, promise all of these incredible things, and then deliver. Normally, we’re promised the world, and then the final title falls short in a multitude of areas and becomes your forgettable 6/10 game – but not Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The influences of the golden era Final Fantasy titles, as well as other classic JRPGs, are clear as day. The artistry of the world, its characters, and environments is breathtaking, the soundtrack ripples through my mind daily, and the gameplay, oh dear, it’s perfection. While not a mile ahead of the competition this year, as others might suggest, there’s no denying in my mind that Expedition 33 is still the finest representation of the video game medium that we’ve seen in 2025.
Stephen del Prado - Donkey Kong Bananza
Nintendo gets this autowin because playing Bananza with my kids was the best AAA experience I had this year. Sure, there are other games that might have gotten this slot – Clair Obscura, Ghost of Yotei, AC Shadows – but I didn’t actually get to play any of those this year, so fair is fair. The Mario Odyssey team worked their magic on the DK universe and pushed the series forward while paying tribute to its past. I can’t wait to see what they have in store next.
Jess Zammit - Split Fiction
Sure, you could argue that this is an indie game – but we can have that argument another time. I needed to have this game on my list. I know a lot of people would argue that this game is pulpy, that it didn’t do anything narratively new, that it relied on tropes and lazy writing – and honestly, screw those people. I don’t care. Playing Split Fiction as a person who has been writing stories since I was a child, but who hasn’t penned anything in a while, made me want to write again. It reminded me of how fun it can be to just create, and how even when the stories you’re telling aren’t groundbreaking, they can still be filled with wonder and joy – and be important to you. Split Fiction is fun, and wild, and sure – often cheesy. But it also has some of the year’s best gaming moments (shout out to that phone unlocking/motorbike chase scene) and is incredibly fun to share with a friend. Also, it has two kickass female protagonists and baby dragons. It turns out that’s really all I need.
Jenn Christodoulou - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Is Expedition 33 technically a AAA game? No. Do I care? Also no. Did I play anything that was actually a AAA game that came anywhere close? N O.
Expedition 33 was a masterpiece. It made me grieve for a family I did not know, yearn for a place I have never been, and fall in love with people I have never met. From the beginning of the game to the very end, I was enraptured.
I knew this was going to win GOTY, and I am so glad it did. It has skyrocketed to one of my top 5 games ever played in my lifetime. Musically, graphically, storywise… this game is almost perfect. Play it.
Play it.
Play it play it play it play it play it.
Rob Caporetto - Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake
I’ll admit: 2025 has been a year light on AAA games for me. But the HD-2D Remake of the first two Dragon Quests so happened to scratch some particular itches for me that make it my pick for the year.
This isn’t from a nostalgia angle – I never experienced them in the original form in the day (and also between you and me, nostalgia is a fine reason to appreciate old games, but it’s the least interesting one for me), and I struggled in trying earlier updates to them. So the improvements and modernisation tweaks which have been made to them have helped greatly in getting to enjoy these iconic RPGs.
That might sound strange coming from me, but sometimes the nature of older games can mean they’re hard to click with when you don’t have the full context to enjoy them – or the time to put into them (thanks to responsibilities). So anything which helps get the hook in is very much appreciated in my book.
While both games in the collection trend to the simpler side of the RPG – both needing lots of grinding to work though, and a straightforward pair of stories, I’ve found myself enjoying my time with the collection as I sat back on the couch, exploring the worlds, grinding through encounters and more.
Plus, the HD-2D presentation adds something magical to the experience in how it translates the visual stylings of the original games, bringing their charms into the third dimension.
Maybe it’s the vibe of my own 2025, but I’ve found Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D to be a relaxing experience. Especially as someone who really isn’t the most experienced with these older styles of RPGs, which has helped me learn the ins and outs without too much pressure on my head.
Tim Henderson - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
This one almost feels pre-destined, although it’s worth noting that 2025 turned out to be a pretty good year for AAA releases (if not for actually working for an AAA studio). Still, Death Stranding 2 stands a very good chance of landing in my top 3 games of the generation, come the likely-too-early announcement of the PS6 and whatever the hell Xbox becomes.
More than any other actual game, it was time that was perhaps Death Stranding 2’s biggest nemesis for me; its release date being interfered with by my first extended vacation in several years, something that caused me to not really have the spare hours to sink into it that I wanted to, and perhaps causing a more rushed playthrough than I gave the first game.
Still, as obtuse as it could obviously be, the care of the craftsmanship put into this game is hard to bypass. It is bar none the best looking game I’ve seen this year – and this is the year where I finally caved and got a new PC with some pretty powerful parts – thanks to very precise animations, excellent HDR support and distinctive directorial touch. Somehow, the opening moments of Death Stranding feel like a flex, despite them consisting of you doing nothing grander than walking home across some rugged terrain.
The pacing picks up from there, something that I personally am unsure about, but that surely resulted in a game that is more approachable for more people, and in a medium where technical achievements seldom have wow factor anymore, this is one game that really did have me open my jaw and just saw ‘whoa’ on a couple of occasions.
Jason Hawkins - Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 started the year out swinging for the fences, and stayed in my mind long after I completed it. It took everything that made the first game a cult hit, improved upon it and then added a bunch of new exciting systems to flesh out the game.
From time to time, I’ll just ‘spend a day’ in the world. Handling a bunch of blacksmithing tasks in the morning, heading into town and sitting down to play dice at the bar with lunch, maybe some hunting and foraging in the afternoon to make sure I have food for supper. Maybe murder a bandit if they try and rob me. That’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Shaun Nicholls - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
It took me a long time to get on the Death Stranding bandwagon. Having bought the game cheaply years ago, it was only earlier this year that I told myself I would finish Sam’s journey and then decide if I wanted to jump into the sequel when it launched. Spoiler, I did and picked it up day one as well. What followed was a masterpiece of storytelling and gameplay, combining story beats that hit like a punch to the stomach with the wild and zany concepts that could only come from the mind of Hideo Kojima to make this one of my favourite games of 2025.
