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. First up, the year’s biggest and best surprises.
The 2025 P2 Game Awards - Biggest Surprise
Tim Henderson - Skate Story
There are two reasons that get Skate Story on this particular little podium. The first is that it even exists, as while I am in no way incentivised to dig back into decade-old Twitter activity, I could swear that I recall seeing a concept game video about a glass skater on there many years ago, thinking that it looked rad, and then never hearing of it again. Well, as it turns out, maybe not until recently? Skate Story may or may not have direct lineage to that memory, but it was a pleasant surprise to see that the idea not only still existed, but had been fleshed out into an actually pretty great game.
The other surprise is that I actually found the skating itself to be somewhat enjoyable. This may sound like absurd praise as a surprise in a skating game, but I 100% took the review of this one because of the vibes. Somehow, it really is the whole package. And it is one hell of a PlayStation Plus inclusion, to boot.
Paul James - Two Point Museum
I perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised by Two Point Museum, given that Two Point Campus was my pick for this award a few years ago, and yet, here we are. I felt like Campus might have just been a flash in the pan for me, but Museum took what made Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus so great, and pushed so much further. From the typical systems and the endearing quirky sense of humour, to the balancing act of maintaining your museum while sending experts out on expeditions to bring in your next grand exhibit; everything that Two Point Studios did with Two Point Museum was superb. I love it, my wife does, and even my then-6-year-old (now 7-year-old) son is hooked on it. Give me more!
Jenn Christodoulou - Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Released at a time when many people were disappointed by a certain other monster collector franchise, Digimon Story: Time Stranger rose to popularity quickly and easily. The hype I saw about this game on TikTok and Steam is what made me pick it up, despite not knowing anything about Digimon. Sure, I caught the anime when I was in primary school, and I had one of those ‘not-quite-a-tamagotchi’ Digimon toys, but this is where my knowledge of Digimon ends.
The most surprising thing about this game was how much I enjoyed it without much prior knowledge of the monsters, the battle mechanics, the world, or anything. I loved how battling worked, I loved exploring the worlds, and I loved how emotionally charged the story was. Digimon Story: Time Stranger showed just how amazing a monster collector/battler game can be if you put in one ounce of effort instead of churning out reworked crap every other year.
Jason Hawkins - Road to Empress
If you’d have told me that I would have rated a Palace Drama, let alone an FMV, highly on my list, I would not have believed you. Enter Road to Empress, a game with production value and quality writing that feels like it’s punching well above its price tag.
You play as a new member of the imperial harem, trying to survive and potentially climb the ladder of an incredibly intricate ecosystem. Spoilers, almost everyone hates you, and either wants you gone or dead. It’s all extremely dramatic, but it’s hard not to get swept up in the spectacle. I’ll absolutely be watching for the sequel.
Stephen del Prado - Death Stranding 2
Pretty ridiculous that one of the biggest AAA titles of 2025 was my biggest surprise, but with how quickly I ditched the original game in the week or so after release, it was surprising just how much I enjoyed the sequel. Numerous Quality of Life adjustments facilitated a more engaging and rewarding trek across Mexico and Australia, with cameos galore and a huge swathe of optional content consuming me for weeks leading up to the release and a glowing review from me. Death Stranding 2 is a testament to why sometimes ideas need room to breathe and grow, as well as a reminder that there have been far too many ‘one and done’ media properties that didn’t get their time to shine. Plus, without Kojima gifting Death Stranding 2 to the wider gaming world, we wouldn’t have gotten transformative transmedia works like Joab Gilroy’s revelatory review.
Rob Caporetto - Hollow Knight: Silksong
Yeah, I went there alright, as Silksong has been one of those games which many have been excited for ever since Team Cherry started making noise about it so many years ago.
Those initial teases would be all we would have for years, leaving many to wonder if it was lost in the fires of development hell, and whether Hornet’s adventures would actually see release, or if they were nothing but a meme.
It turns out that 2025 would be the year of Hornet, with the first sign of something stirring being its inclusion as one of the featured games within ACMI’s Game Worlds exhibition (which, if you find yourself in Melbourne, you absolutely need to go catch).
While many found that news to be exciting, the only thing that would truly satisfy sceptics was the surprise announcement of an actual, solid release date.
One it actually met! One would, which actually breaks Steam on release day because of how many people would rush to download it once it had been released!
And all was right with the world. At least until the next round of gaming discourse hits! (oh no)
Matt Hewson - Anno 117: Pax Romana
It is probably not a surprise for the many fans who have followed the Anno series that its latest entry is excellent. But you see, I wasn’t one of those people. I have long had a soft spot for city builders, but for some reason, Anno had never really entered my sphere. That changed in a big way with Anno 117. It is a supreme city builder that encourages repeat plays, teaches complex systems with ease and delights in encouraging players towards running their successful Roman colony. It is, in a word, superb.
But the biggest surprise from my side of things? Tropico now has some serious (and I mean serious) competition for my time whenever I feel the urge to run a city for a few hours, and honestly, I didn’t think that was possible.
Jess Zammit - Blue Prince
I’m not usually a roguelike person, and if I am, it’s because the game has managed to pull me in with some kind of narrative hook. Blue Prince is different. I’ll be surprised if this game doesn’t win a bunch of awards for its surprising blend of hardcore puzzle-solving, rage-inducing randomisation, and downright addictive gameplay. At first, I was sceptical – it can’t pull me in without a solid story, I thought. But then I started playing, and suddenly I’d lost hours. When I wasn’t playing Blue Prince, I was thinking about it. I was playing a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill with my friends, looking at the tiles on the board, getting ideas for how I was going to structure my next run through the Mt. Holly mansion. I do have some issues with this game, and there are reasons it’s falling into this category and not game of the year – but it’s definitely the one that surprised me most, and possibly the one that consumed the largest portion of my waking thoughts.
Shaun Nicholls - Battlefield 6
I’m sure many of my colleagues will be nominating Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and while they are not wrong, for my pick this year, I have to go with the latest entry in the long-running first-person shooter.
After some pretty massive missteps with Battlefield 2042, DICE went back to the roots of the Battlefield experience, and it is everything a Battlefield game should be. Gone are the hero characters, scripted events and calling in robot dogs with mounted guns to run with you. Instead, the focus is on the dynamics between the players and the classes they play as. In what could almost be even more of a surprise was that the game, by and large, worked as intended at launch. There were a few technical issues of the sort that plague these types of online games, with the majority of players able to jump in and play from day one.
