, we all realised we'd spent the last 12 months obsessing over completely different games.
is packed with multiple hotly anticipated releases—games that we've been waiting months (or even years) to get our hands on.
this year—even if we'll have to wait longer for it to appear on PC.
Of course delays are inevitable, and not everything currently sporting a vague "2025" release window will actually come out. But even with that caveat, there's plenty to look forward to. So to give you an idea of what cool stuff is on the horizon, I asked the PCG team to pick out some personal favourites they simply can't wait to play.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Feb 28, 2025
I'd love to make some sort of wistful remark about how it's nearly time to dust off my dual blades and polish my armour ready for the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, but let's be real—no one really takes a break from Monster Hunter. Even if you've poured hundreds of hours into any of the mainline games, there's always the excuse of one more hunt. Or at least that's what's been seeing me through the over-a-year-long wait for Wilds.
Promising the 'ultimate hunting experience,' there's already a lot to expect. Monster Hunter World felt like a pretty epic hunting experience if you ask me, so I'm absolutely desperate to know what's going to take that to the next level. The amuse-bouche of an open beta test in October was enough to wet the whistle, but it definitely left me with an insatiable craving. When I was gliding through the air atop a Seikret or going toe to toe with a pack of Doshaguma, Monster Hunter Wilds delivered an experience that I can only describe as true glee, and something I'm impatiently waiting to feel again when I can finally get my hands on the full game.
Civilization 7
Feb 11, 2025
's big structural changes to be, I wouldn't have been satisfied by a Civ 6 do-over with a new look. (Though the new look is great.)
modernity instead of giving in to the siren call of starting a new campaign whenever I start feeling things slow down.
Elden Ring: Nightreign
2025
of the game.
I've wanted to play Elden Ring in new game plus for over two years now, but while I was once held back by a desire to save my guys for Shadow of the Erdtree, now I'm impeded by the sheer quadruple-decker hamburger size of the game—I'd have to block off a month of my gaming time for a run or just resign myself to losing steam partway through.
Snackable, repeatable, roguelike Elden Ring in the form of a standalone expansion pack feels like just the thing to address my hunger without fully monopolizing my free time. And whether I'm going in with friends or soloing everything like a little freakazoid, I can't wait to be back at it again in Limgrave Limveld.
Avowed
Feb 18, 2025
. It's not Skyrim, it's not class-based, it's not as crunchy as its isometric RPG predecessor games—Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2.
), I can't wait to finally get my hands on it. So far as I'm concerned, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is one of the best RPGs of all time, and the series' setting of Eora is heinously undertapped. Getting to return to that world is exactly the treat I need in 2025, and if the game does well enough to open up more games in that universe? I'll be a very happy camper.
Inzoi
March 28, 2025
: It's finally time. A competitor for The Sims series is going to launch. It is not going to get delayed or cancelled at the last minute (I am now manifesting). Sims enjoyers have been watching Inzoi with great interest for over a year now and it's time to see if Krafton has the chops to compete.
demo and I know that at full launch there are going to be incredible lookalike creations. What remains to be seen is if Inzoi is more than just a ton of pretty faces. Krafton has shown off features like the open world that Sims players have been yearning to see return since The Sims 3. But simulation games in all genres are notoriously buggy and it's impossible to say how well Inzoi will survive first contact with its eager playerbase.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
2025
I'm not a Kojima-liker, so when people talk about Death Stranding as just another volume of "that kooky guy doing his thing" it gives me a start. I loved every second of Death Stranding for its own merits, not for shining more light on the brain of one dude who put his name all over it. Everything that's boring in other open world games—inventory management, the empty spaces between encounters—became interesting because Death Stranding committed to simulating it. Climbing a particularly steep hill while balancing a pile of crates is, it turns out, a real cool little challenge, and doing the same thing when an ocean of oil from another dimension is trying to eat you becomes even more stressful than it otherwise would be.
So I'm looking forward to finding out what the deal is with Framerate Punch the Weird Puppet Guy and why everyone is on a submarine, but mostly I just want another game made with as much care and thought as Death Stranding was.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
TBA
, with the studio taking the traditional turn-based combat JRPG formula, as seen in series such as Persona, Suikoden and Final Fantasy, and then bringing a uniquely western flavour to it. From the game's stunning Belle Époque art style, to classical symphonic soundtrack, this is a game dripping in a non-traditional JRPG style. This is shaping up to be a dark fantasy RPG adventure that genuinely moves the genre forward, too, as its reactive combat mechanics offer something fresh, injecting a real-time action-RPG element that enhances engagement. Here's hoping this will be an expedition to remember.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Feb 14, 2025
really cool. The blocking, stance breaking, and devastating katana cuts are definitely a step up from Valhalla's endless axe chopping.
But I also just have this feeling that Shadows is gonna bang. It looks gorgeous, the little snippets of combat and stealth Ubisoft has been dropping look instantly fun, and I'm even on board with the two protagonists thing: I like the idea of splitting up the shinobi and samurai fantasies into two characters who live by those creeds instead of say, the Ghost of Tsushima, who is both the best ninja and samurai in the world.
Tempest Rising
April 24, 2025
going to get Tempest Rising, and everything I've seen suggests that it's exactly what I'm looking for.
of RTS in just a few months time.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Jan 23, 2025
Quite frankly it's criminal that two of 2024's best games—Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth—weren't on PC, but at least we're fixing things with the latter getting ported over later this month. Now I'll admit I wasn't totally sold on Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was a little fetch quest-heavy for my liking, but from everything I've seen Rebirth is a total step up from its predecessor. An improved story, combat, and exploration have me super jazzed, and I'm looking forward to seeing what awaits Cloud and the gang beyond Midgar.
Dune: Awakening
Early 2025
It's a bit weird to find myself looking forward to Dune: Awakening because I don't really like MMOs and the Star Wars universe's Tatooine fetish has made me utterly sick of desert environments. I wasn't even entranced by the new Dune movies. But I do like survival and crafting, and every time I learn a bit more about Dune: Awakening I get more interested in playing.
. Base-building, exploration, liquefying your enemies to extract drinking water from them, and oh yeah, sandworms: maybe this will be the MMO that finally makes me an MMO guy.
Little Nightmares 3
2025
Little Nightmares is probably one of the most reliable horror franchises. I loved both of the previous games, and I appreciated how the second one was able to raise the stakes and introduce some more intense action sequences without feeling too gimmicky. So, I've really gotten my hopes up for the next game.
We still don't know when Little Nightmares 3 is set to release in 2025, but I'm hoping it'll be as soon as possible, especially because it's going to have a two-player co-op. With different tools like a wrench and a bow and arrow, you'll be able to solve puzzles and make your way through the creepy corridors.
I'm incredibly excited to jump into this scary version of It Takes Two and begin to explore the often beautiful yet chilling world of Little Nightmares. Plus, it's always helpful to have a second player in horror games—as the old adage goes: You don't need to be faster than the monster, just faster than your teammate.
Wanderstop
March 11, 2025
I found out it was being made by the freaking Stanley Parable dev, and now my curiosity is at a fever-pitch. I'm sweatin', here.
and my brain, ever hungry for new and excitingly weird ways for games to tell stories, has attached myself to the idea of it like a particularly stubborn limpet on a boat. Sign me up for some hot leaf juice with feelings.
Bogdan's Cross
2025
page: "Bogdan's Cross is an action-adventure game set in the tumultuous era of the Crusades. Follow the journey of Bogdan, a humble shepherd boy, as he rises to become a legendary Templar knight." Utterly conventional, entirely unremarkable—the sort of thing we've seen in countless other games (and movies, and television shows) to come before it.
.
Lookit them goddamn ears and tell me you're not curious too.
Cairn
2025
I like to clamber in videogames. I've been doing it for years. I've done so much clambering in so many places I shouldn't—looking at you, Skyrim—that my first thought on seeing Cairn was that I could probably clamber all over those rock faces, no sweat. I can clamber as easily as I breathe.
Sometimes it's fun to be punished for my hubris.
I've since learned from a few terrifying falls while playing Cairn's demo earlier this month that I may not be the free-climbing wunderkind I'd believed myself to be. That's fine, because I've also learned that its freeform climbing mechanics are incredible. Inching your way up each stretch of rock is magnificently tense: a kind of prolonged game of chicken against your character's quaking limbs, where you're trying to get as much distance as possible before your grip gives out and you're sent swinging back down to wherever you last drove in a piton.
Assuming you remembered to drive in a piton, of course. Again, hubris can be fun.
R-Type Tactics 1 • 2: Cosmos
2025
being released on PC for the first time next year probably has the "most unexpected PSP-to-PC conversion" GOTY award on lock in advance (yes, I'm already lobbying for next year's award categories). I've never played them because in 2008 I owned a Nintendo DS and not a PSP. Didn't need one, since I already had Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children on DVD. But anyway, I know I missed out on a couple good JRPGs, a few great puzzle games, and this truly bizarre adaptation of a legendary horizontally scrolling shooter into turn-based strategy.
this year, R-Type Tactics is one of vanishingly few examples of "a studio performing the forbidden alchemy of transposing a game into another genre entirely," and also one of the most successful. Dominic knows his oddities well, so that's all the vote I need to give these a shot—particularly as the sequel was originally only released in Japan.
Strange as this tactical conversion may be, though, it'll never be the strangest thing about R-Type. That honor goes to developer Irem releasing "R-Type Final" in 2003, then releasing no fewer than six more R-Type games afterward, including the perfectly named "R-Type Final 3 Evolved." Surely we learned this lesson with Final Fantasy 2, guys!
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Sometime before the heat death of the universe
. I can feel it. There's a colony of ladybirds hibernating in one of my window frames this winter, and I'm telling you it's a portent from the insect deities that Silksong's arrival is imminent.
"Someone says this every year!" you retort and yes, that may be true. Too many times have we gotten our hopes up, tuning into every award livestream and Nintendo Direct, only to have them crushed underboot like so many ants.
Monster Hunter Wilds may be just over the horizon—and I can't wait to pick up my beloved insect glaive again—but Silksong is the game I'm really banking on. Exploring Hollow Knight's haunted bug kingdom remains one of my fondest gaming memories, and considering how long Team Cherry has been left to cook, I expect it'll turn out quite special.
Europa Universalis 5
It doesn't technically exist yet
. It's some next-level gaslighting. And it's totally working on me. While Crusader Kings took the place in my heart previously reserved for EU, that doesn't mean I ain't still a sucker for Paradox's old flagship series.
The lack of an official announcement suggests that my hopes for a 2025 launch are misplaced, but stranger things have happened. At the very least, I'm expecting that we'll get confirmation that it's happening, and then I'll see about weaseling my way into a hands-on.
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