Games Inbox: What is the second best video game of 2025?

The Friday letters page is amazed at how many new games are released every month, as one reader worries there’ll never be a Metroid Dread 2.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE: We are currently preparing articles to run over the Christmas and New Year break, so if you’ve been thinking of writing a Reader’s Feature now would be the perfect time to send it in. It can be on any subject you want, as long as it’s a minimum of 500 words long.

Silver medal
I do expect Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to clear up at most game award events and websites over the next few months, including GC, and I have no problem with that. I don’t think many people do. And yet, it’s sold a lot but not so much that it’s going to be something that most gamers have played, not as if it was Call Of Duty or something like that.

So I’m not surprised that when Sony asked ordinary people to vote, Clair Obscur didn’t win. However, I certainly wouldn’t have picked what they did as number one (trying to avoid spoilers). So what is a reasonable choice for second best game of the year?

I’ve been trying to think, and I guess the frontrunners are Donkey Kong Bananza, Split Fiction, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. Does that sound about right? For me, Silksong takes the prize, but I feel its vote is very much split with Hades 2.

Curious to know what other people think but I’ll be honest, I do think Clair Obscur is clearly the best game of the year, so for me this is a race only for second place.
Cranston

Too many to count
I had never really thought about how many games are released a year but 19,000 on Steam is crazy. I remember back in the 90s you could at least know about every game that was coming out, even if you never got to play them all. A quiet month for a gaming magazine might only have a dozen or so new game reviews but 19,000… that’s over 1,500 a month! Who could possibly keep track of all that? Who’d even want to.

I used to dream of being a games developer, but it seems like the most unreliable and risky job out there. If you’re not getting laid off by the thousands, by some soulless mega corp, you’re blindly hoping that people notice you in amongst a sea of other games. I’m honestly beginning to wonder why people do it.
Taylor Moon

White noise
I’ve seen so many interviews with Todd Howard lately, because of the new Fallout show season, and I’m not sure he said a single noteworthy thing in any of them. The stuff about Fallout 5 being canon to the show and saying it wouldn’t be 10 years after Elder Scrolls 6 was something, I guess, but I’m not sure I particularly believe him anyway.

He talks about wanting to get things right and needing the time to make sure everything is perfect, but that’s exactly what he said about Starfield, and you know how that turned out. I don’t know who else is at Bethesda that has influence but I’m going to guess that Howard is most of the problem there, in terms of everything taking so long and the complete technical ineptness.

I mean, how do we get Cyberpunk 2077 running so well on Switch 2, at launch, and they can’t even manage Skyrim without it being a disaster.
Tungston

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Hold up
I have to say, the excuses from certain developers, of only using ‘AI’ to generate placeholder assets and then accidentally leaving them in, sounds bizarre to the extent that I have to suspect many of them are just lying after being caught out.

The whole point of placeholder assets is that they’re, well, placeholders. Something quickly put in to fill a gap, with the full intention of replacing it before release. Placeholder text can be Lorem ipsum, ‘TO DO: Character Bio’, or even just the word ‘Placeholder’.

Placeholder textures are often bright pink, so they will be quickly spotted if not removed. There is simply no benefit to using ChatGPT or the like to create something that could be mistaken for finished work at a first glance.
TGN Professor

New Frontiers
I know most of the rumours came true at The Game Awards but one of the ones that didn’t, that surprised me, was no new Sonic game. It’s three years since Sonic Frontiers, which I liked, and I’m really surprised it hasn’t had a sequel announced yet, since I think it was their most popular and successful 3D game since basically ever.

The next movie is out in 2027 so I’m sure they’ll want to release it then, but I would’ve thought they’d want to announce it before then. Maybe that means it ties in with the new film’s plot? As far as I understand the next film is based on Sonic CD, though, so I’m not sure what that might mean about a new game.
Darryl

Dreadful sequel
Not to add to the Metroid Prime 4 hate (or at least major disappointment) but I just beat it and I can’t believe there’s no way to go back and finish up anything you left. You get to the end, but they shut the door behind you and you can’t get out, so all you can do is beat the game and start again.

I know it’s not Nintendo making the game, but they were overseeing it. How does a mistake like that get past them? The whole game is just a mess, and I agree with the theory that it wasn’t restarted from scratch at all, and instead they bodged together a bunch of half-finished concepts into one game.

I’d say it’s now pretty obvious they should’ve actually started from nothing and taken all the time they needed. Instead, they rushed it (sort of, it still took ages) and now they’ve got a game nobody likes, that hasn’t made much money, and probably won’t get a sequel anytime soon. It’s the worst of everything.

The word is so negative I’m not even sure we’ll get a sequel to Metroid Dread anymore. We certainly haven’t heard anything about it, which you would’ve hoped for by now, seeing as it’s four years old now.
Gyros

GC: It’s madness, we were on 98% as well.

Sexy update
The performance upgrades for Switch games on Switch 2 are great. But I know not every game automatically performs better.

Do you or any reader know if The Sexy Brutale performs better if played on Switch 2. It’s currently on sale and I remember the reviews were bad for this version and I doubt it will ever get a Switch 2 edition.
goldbricks23

GC: We don’t have the Switch version, so we don’t know. But at the very least loading times should be improved. It’s a great game and we hoped to see more from developer Cavalier Game Studios, but given their lack of online activity we’re not even sure they’re still going.

A tale of two award shows
Another great Game Awards, with very worthy winners and nominees. What I was hoping in the awards was pretty much what happened. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was definitely a game worthy of the win but glad also that Arc Raiders won the best multiplayer. Not because I will play it but pleased to see a new IP taking on Battlefield 6 and Escape From Tarkov.

Geoff Keighley and the team. along with The Muppets, did the usual feel good show and kept the excitement. and the reveals of new games, going; along with special guests introducing game previews or awarding the relevant award to the deserving winners! Top tier viewing for followers of games and the success of this industry.

The Streamer Awards, whilst not the opposite, does seem a bit more of a comical affair, to say the least! Half the time the camera was pointing to the wrong streamer during the nominees listed for that particular award or even an empty chair or worse: the wrong empty chair! Along with other technical glitches or showing the wrong video or something! The various presenters, though, were mostly okay and mostly professional.

But even though The Streamer Awards was awkward to watch sometimes, I did enjoy it and can’t complain when a Twitch viewer like me sees this form of entertainment get a good send off for the year! Even though I knew only about six or seven of the content creators at the show, out of a couple of hundred or more attendees there!

This year has definitely been a good one for gamers in general, who got mostly what they wanted, it was also a great representation of the community and businesses involved with the development of titles. Furthering key innovations, and keeping things fresh in quite a few cases, whilst staying pure to what the audience wants and not just looking at the bucks only, was very much appreciated.

Great to see Cyberpunk 2077 get so many updates and Elden Ring: Nightreign getting regular updates also. The indie market being very cost effective and affordable, with great quality content for the fans and newcomers in general, was great for me and other experimental gamers who love niche titles. So hopefully it’s to be a great Christmas to GameCentral and their loyal viewers and also an awesome New Year to everyone. Happy Gaming y’all.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
Why does adding Fallout skins to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 feel like cost-cutting? It doesn’t make any sense for it to be in the game but at least they don’t have to pay for the licence, so might as well jam it in there.
Claude

Well, it’s getting near Christmas, so that means only one thing: look out my copy of Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams… for that ultimate seasonal feeling!
Tony T.

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