2025: The year in gaming

We're now in 2026 and and the blogging backlog has only gotten bigger!
It's time to look back at last year.

2025 was a slightly quieter year when compared to '24 - which is understandable as for the last 6 weeks of the year I was preoccupied with other issues.

2025
Number of different games played: 156.
Of which were new (To me.): 59.
Total number of gaming sessions: 634.

2024
Number of different games played: 178.
Of which were new (To me.): 78.
Total number of gaming sessions: 704.

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Top 5 games for 2025 were:

1. ​Tranquility - 33 sessions
2. Railroad Ink - 31 sessions.
3. Super Mega Lucky Box - 30 sessions.
4. Can't Stop - 25 sessions.
5. Splendor - 23 sessions.

For a 2nd year, Tranquility got the most sessions - although it is down from the heady heights of 50 from last year!
Railroad Ink gets 2nd as it did last year. With 33 sessions, it too is down, albeit slightly from last year - as is all the top 5.
New into the top 5 at 3rd place this year is Super Mega Lucky Box, a quick playing bingo inspired card game.

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Now it's time for the much anticipated, highly regarded 3 Spellcasters & Dwarf Game Awards. The awards everyone talks about.... or not!

Game of the year: Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-taking Game
A few years ago, I gave The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, another trick-taking card game the game of the year award.
Mechanically, Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game shares a lot with that game, so it felt like a bit of cop out to also award it game of the year. However the theme in Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game is so much stronger than The Crew and I'm a sucker for Lord of the Rings themed games.
I really enjoyed this one and look forward playing The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game this year which has only recently been released.

Surprise of the Year: Prey Another Day
This simple card game employs an elegant mechanic whereupon a card's gameplay usefulness is diametrically opposed to it's scoring point value.
It's also very much a game of playing the other players than playing the game.

Honourable mention: Lacuna
Usually I'm a bit weary of 2-player games where opponents go directly head-to-head but Lacuna presents this in such a pleasant way with an engaging core mechanic and excellent yet almost minimalistic components that it can't help but be charming.

Other honourable mention: Fighting Fantasy Adventures
Another licensed cooperative fantasy game! This time one that harks back to the 80's and the classic Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
Fighting Fantasy Adventures swaps out the 400 chapters of a gamebooks for card-driven gameplay with 2 decks of cards instead. Whilst perhaps a touch finicky, Fighting Fantasy Adventures does a great job of emulating the feel of its source material.