A year in review - 2025

Margot's gaming reflections of 2025 and what we may get up to in 2026.

Last year I did a roundup of all the games I played on PC using my Steam Deck, which I had owned for around 10 months at that point.

A year in review - PC gaming on the steam deck

This year it feels a bit unfair to only focus on the PC, as I have branched out a bit and did a bit more than give Steam my money.

I do want to look back though and see what I think might be next for me. And comment on my thoughts from the beginning of the year before I call out some of my favourite games that I played in 2025. Considering only a handful of these were new releases this won’t be a “Game of the Year” type post. But more just focused on what fun I had.

Reflection

I did inherit a gaming PC and started to play some more strategy games such as Frostpunk. I did worry about having to use windows operating system again but actually it was all fine, maybe because I just used it for gaming a bit and then would shut it down. It also allowed me to try streaming, which I enjoyed but I am not sure if it is for me. I can’t find my reason and it is not fun enough for me to just do because I like it (like writing). But inheriting a PC did escalate and I wanted to build a more up to date one (OK I saw a pretty set up at Gamescom), and so recently set up my work and gaming space, to be full RGB cuteness.

My goal was to play around 20 games but I managed over 50. Not all got completed but a good chunk did. I wanted that list to include The Witcher 3 and as of writing this post on Dec 31st, I did play 8-10 hours of it in 2025. Many more to go in 2026.

Here is a graphic of the PC games I played. The two crossed out I started up by accident hence steam shows them.

From these my 5 highlights in no order were:

Reviews: Catmaze

Reviews: Death's door

Reviews: South of Midnight

Reviews: Tunic

And Silksong, for which I don’t have a specific review. :D

Oh but honourable mentions to Avowed, A short Hike, Stray, and of course Cult of the lamb, which I replayed recently.

What about Nintendo games?

I saw that Nintendo will do a recap feature in January, and I am looking forward to doing a specific post about the Switch 2 then, as I will have had it for over 6 months at that point.

The other main game missing from the list above apart from Switch 2 titles, is Astrobot which I played on PS5 and still have a love to do on/with? But did enjoy a lot too and understand why it won awards.

Hopes

My hope was to be full time employed again in 2025, which did also happen. However in September I also changed job role and while it is based on some of the skills I have, it is a different type of career and day to day for me, so I was struggling towards the end of the year to relax, as I don’t know what good looks like in my role yet. Maybe that will change in the next few months and I can have a better routine again.

So I guess my hope for 2026 is that I can settle into the new routine and understand my job role enough to feel comfortable. I’d also like to do some travelling but I am unsure yet where and when. Do you have suggestions?

Community

I also mentioned the community I had already found on substack and this has really exploded this year and I couldn’t be happier for the awesome people from around the world that I have met online. I mentioned a few of them during #12plays of Game-mas posts and notes. But you should just join Good Game Lobby discord here and chat with a lot of other substackers, gamers, and genuinely lovely people about life, gaming and of course pets!

I love hearing so many different perspectives and game likes and dislikes. The industry is so fascinating to me. We are all so different so how a game hits differently with a group of people is really interesting. We have a monthly gaming club, that is worth joining to try something different and to see exactly what I mean about taste and experience differences.

I am so grateful to have been welcomed in to the gaming world despite not being a “good” gamer, or any type of gamer. Well I do think of myself as a gamer but not a specific type anymore. Maybe handheld first gamer? Who needs labels in gaming? (There might be another post in that :D ).

For more info on what 12 Plays of Game-mas was, have a look here.

Gaming Goals for 2025 were:

1. Have fun with gaming - TICK

2. Try more isometric titles - thinking Tunic maybe? - TICK

3. Aim for 20ish games played - TICK

4. Post on substack once a week - TICK-ish - I think it averaged out.

Attend Gamescom in Cologne (I would love to attend GDC in March but financially not really an option this year) - TICK for Gamescom - GDC not an option at the moment :D

You can read the blog about attending gamescom below.

Events: Gamescom 2025

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Goals for 2026?

I don’t really have any specific goals for 2026 come to think of it. The last 2 years have been rough, hence my escapism into gaming, but I want to focus a bit more on moving my body and making time for me and not feeling guilty about it.

I would like to write those posts that have been on my list a while, which is around AI, Women in Games/Gaming and maybe a bit of an angle around life as a female gamer without kids in your late 30s/early 40s. But then I may not care to read that last one, so I may not write it. :D I just loved the recent memes around “What does a woman in her 30s without kids even do!?” LOL

I don’t like to chase stats or such but it was nice to see what type of things resonated with everyone last year.

My most popular post was:

Thoughts: Do I actually WANT to play that game?

Most popular review:

Reviews: A Short Hike

Which felt really special, as I was really happy with the review.

And the other post people loved was about my Zelda BotW play through, so I better get back on that. :D

Right that is enough reminiscing. There will be a Switch 2 special at some point when they release their recap but until then, I had a blast here and thanks for your support. I hope we continuing to create together and have a lovely start to 2026.