The best PS5 games of 2025

In this new era of Console…holism? He drives it Sony and Mostly Microsoft By bringing its exclusives to other platforms, it’s become harder to highlight the games that make a single console shine. In fact, the best-performing games year after year on both PlayStation and Xbox are cross-platform releases, and are often the best games of the year, e.g. 2025 GOTY Award Winner Light and Darkness: Expedition 33, Likewise launch on most everything. (Again, as in all things, Nintendo is the exception.)

But while listings like this will likely disappear as we delve deeper into the era of Everything is Xbox, Sony remains committed to high-quality exclusives. Here’s the best of 2025.

With software exclusivity going the way of Sega’s console business, console makers have other ways to attract consumers to their part of the video game ecosystem. For Microsoft, it’s Game Pass; For Sony in 2025, that is PlayStation Portal. This year, Sony launched an update to the portal Enables cloud streaming And make the device a must-have for PlayStation families. For $200, roughly half the price of the PS5, you’re essentially getting a second device, capable of playing select games without having to stream them from the console. The list of streamable games is not exhaustive, But there are more than 2000 of themand being able to play it on the go is literally a game changer.

Enter into a discussion with Sahih Final fantasy You’re tired of the top 10 games in the series, and you’d better have plenty of time and earplugs while everyone discusses the second through tenth entries – because #1, always, is… Final Fantasy Tactics. After finally playing the game for the first time, taking advantage of the Square Enix remaster released this year, I get it. The best video games are often timeless, while also being able to speak to a specific moment, and TacticsThe story is and does just that.

But more than the narrative TacticsThe brilliance also lies in the expanded job system that gives players an exact replica of the Lord and is a lot of fun to use. The Math class has the ability to cast any spell learned in the game instantly and without requiring mana. To compensate for the extremely slow speed of the class, pair it with a White Mage to create the most diabolical unit in the history of strategy RPGs. Ramza Beowulf is just a man trying to save the world Direct instant transfer He made me believe he could because I made his ragtag band of misfits use nuclear weapons.

The sequel to Sucker Punch Ghost of Tsushima He plays things relatively safe. It doesn’t change things dramatically but instead polishes the experience. Which means the experience isn’t much different from its predecessor – that means lush landscapes to explore, plenty of combat techniques to learn, and plenty of hot springs to bathe in – but everything feels more refined this time around. This is especially true of the game’s revenge story, which is more engaging than the original and gives the open-world experience some much-needed structure.

The original Stranded death It was so bizarre that half the fun was just wrapping your head around the experience. I’m not sure I really understood it until I was almost done (if I understood it at all). The sequel is still very strange, but since it’s based on the previous game, it’s also easier to understand from the start. It’s still a delivery simulator where you journey through a post-apocalyptic landscape to get goods and people where they need them. But now the setting has moved to Australia, which means there are new environmental elements to contend with – hello, sandstorms – along with a whole new cast of eccentric characters to meet, played by everyone from Elle Fanning to George Miller.

But don’t worry; The story remains as mysterious as ever.

Bennett Foudy sure made you feel the “walking” part. This elaborate walking simulator. in Baby stepsYour job is to walk, and you do this by controlling every step that goes into taking a step, down to the fine motor details. The result is a funny examination of human psychology, emotional maturity, and a new appreciation for how difficult it is to navigate a body with nothing more than the DualSense’s trigger buttons.

when Lumen arises It was first announced, and I made the mistake of asking, “Oh, is it a series or something?” LumenDays as a powerful PSP. My elders would never let me live that, so I thought I’d see for myself what the game was.

Lumen arises He is The evil Dr. Tetris effect means bean machine. I mean bean machine The game is played by grouping identical blocks together in two-by-two configurations. It’s part Tetris effect Because the game has a great soundtrack synchronized with the action, creating a full-body puzzle playing experience. The bad thing is that the game is hard as shit. My skills k Tetris The player, although limited, does not move to it Lumen arises. but! There is a flow state that I can reach. As you play, the blocks will change shapes from blocks to eggs to clocks, whatever, and I found some patterns easier to put together than others. It’s fun and interesting to see which shapes make the game easier for me and which are impossible to make.