If the pandemic felt like a chokehold on game development, 2025 is the year the games industry finally exhaled, and loudly.

After years of delays and uncertainty, the industry caught up with a blistering and unpredictable schedule of deeply personal indies, surprise hits and long-gestating sequels. Studios that spent years with shifting timelines finally emerged with work that felt expressive and polished.

It was a year so busy with quality releases, it’s practically impossible to have covered them all as one person. Like its predecessor, “Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” seems to be a bold reinvention of the computer role-playing game, and I’m eager to experience it. “Blue Prince” by indie studio Dogubomb, another on my to-do list, captured many adventurous hearts.

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