9 exciting video game releases in 2025
Step into 2025 with games that transport you to ancient Japan, gothic fantasy realms, loot-laden sci-fi futures, and desert worlds teeming with colossal sandworms. Big or small, this year’s line-up promises nonstop thrills and surprises. We’ve cherry-picked the finest to make your year unforgettable!
Atomfall
Release: March 27
For a British adventure to get you in mood for the summer holidays, Atomfall may float your irradiated Lake District boat. Taking place in a world where the 1957 fire at the Windscale nuclear plant turned the whole of the UNESCO World Heritage Site into a radioactive wasteland, Atomfall can be described as the British version of the Fallout games. Though, there is a lot more to it than that.
While you will face murderous mutants and marauders, in Atomfall, ammunition for guns is much more scarce. There’s a greater emphasis on stealth and talking your way past problems than in Fallout.
And, unlike Fallout, Atomfall isn’t an RPG. Instead of levelling up your Charisma and Luck values to outtalk locals, you’ll need to investigate the environment for clues to use in conversation.
Ghost of Yotei
Release date: OCT 2
Not everyone is a conversationalist, and if Atomfall seems a tad too passive for you, then Atsu, the protagonist of Ghost of Yotei, may be your girl. On a revenge mission across Hokkaido, the solution to many of her problems lies at the end of a sword.
Set over 300 years after the events of Sucker Punch’s previous open-world samurai game, Ghost of Tsushima, you’ll be using more advanced weapons in this sequel. Atsu can both use firearms and dual-wield katana, making her well-suited to a one-woman rampage across a beautiful Japanese island.
While there’s no suggestion that Yotei will be less of a stealth game than Tsushima, those new toys will give you plenty of opportunities to go all in on the offensive.
Doom: The Dark Ages
Release date: May 15
A prequel to Doom (2016), id Software’s latest game will show you exactly how the Doom Slayer became public enemy number one for the demons of hell.
Looking like the front cover of a heavy metal album from a band that’s really into its medieval history, Doom: The Dark Ages transplants its fast-paced shooter action from the far-flung sci-fi future of previous games to a fantasy world of knights and castles.
While Doom looks like a frenetic shooter, in recent games, it’s become a lot more strategic. It demands you match your weapon to the weak spots of different enemies, a particular challenge when facing down a horde of foes. Now armed with a shield ringed by a chainsaw blade, in Doom: The Dark Ages, you must block and parry attacks to open up your enemies’ vulnerabilities, adding a new layer to that growing strategic depth.
Finally, you have a game where you can tear apart thousands of demons in a techno-medieval bloodbath and feel brainy while doing it.
Death Stranding 2
Release date: TBC
As creator of the Metal Gear Solid games, Hideo Kojima is one of the best-known developers in gaming. He’s famous for signing up big-name actors to tell weird stories in fascinating games, and he won’t disappoint with Death Stranding 2.
Picking up years after the first game, you again play Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges, a delivery man in a dystopian future where what’s left of humanity hides in underground shelters, escaping deadly rain and prowling monsters on the surface.
From the enigmatic trailers, you will deal with the consequences of forging connections between distant colonies in the last game. This new connectivity has summoned some deeply creepy monsters. Death Stranding 2 is set to be one of the weirdest games in 2025 and not one to be missed.
Dune: Awakening
Release date: May 20
Continuing in the vein of unfriendly sci-fi worlds, Dune: Awakening throws you into the desert world of Arrakis. Water is scarce, rival factions are many, and great sandworms are under the desert’s surface, ready to eat unwary travellers. What better setting for a video game?
Unlike other MMOs like World of Warcraft, Dune: Awakening is a survival game, where without water and shelter, you will die. Those needs will push you into the dangerous, shifting sands, looking for resources to build your home and craft gear. You may find something even more valuable, Arrakis’ greatest treasure: spice.
While you could try to go it alone, in Dune: Awakening, you can work with or fight other players to get ahead. For instance, join a guild and team up with players to operate the spice harvesters and protect them from raiders.
Elden Ring Nightreign
Release date: May 30
It’s time to return to the Lands Between, the twisted fantasy world of Elden Ring. Or, more specifically, Limgrave, the game’s opening area. In Elden Ring Nightreign, a co-op spinoff of FromSoftware’s open-world RPG, you and two other players will carve through the golden forests again and again in search of one of the eight Nightlords.
Built to be replayed, Nightreign isn’t like the epic 30-hour campaigns of FromSoftware’s previous games. Instead, you play in short runs. Each expedition takes place over two 15-minute-long days, in which you only have a short time to find gear and items to wield in your battle against the Nightlord.
While you might think you’d grow tired of playing in a single area, each expedition into Limgrave will be different as FromSoftware procedurally generates the world.
On one foray into Limgrave, you may find a ruined castle surrounded by the narrow paths of a thorn-choked forest; on the next, perhaps the castle is replaced with a farmhouse set in an exposed field.
Each change of landscape means different tactical considerations and challenges.
FromSoftware’s games have never been purely singleplayer – in every one of its RPGs since Demon’s Souls, players have been able to summon aid from strangers or hunt one another for sport – but Elden Ring Nightreign is the first time you will be able to join up with your friends.
Nightreign promises to be a unique and unusual cocktail of all the FromSoftware games that came before.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Release date: TBC
2025 marks the long-anticipated return of Samus Aran, the spacefaring bounty hunter protagonist of the Metroid series. It’s been over 15 years since Metroid Prime 3 was released and seven since its sequel was announced. So fans are keen to get it in their hands.
Few games blend exploration and first-person shooting better than Metroid Prime. So, look forward to an adventure filled with puzzles and frenetic action as you try to free a captured research facility from rival bounty hunter Sylux.
Also, as this sequel may be the last first-party game released for the Switch before Nintendo releases its successor console, expect Metroid Prime 4 to push the hardware to its limits.
Grand Theft Auto 6
Release date: Fall
No list of games to look forward to in 2025 would be complete without Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6. The open-world crime ’em up will be the biggest game of the year, and we may still be talking about it in 2035.
Grand Theft Auto 6 sees us return to Vice City, the series’ Miami-inspired metropolis. However, this time, rather than the neon-infused world of the ’80s, we’ll be playing in a modern-day version of the Florida pastiche. The game’s first trailer is filled with nods to the game’s major themes. Characters broadcast their lives and crimes on social media; we see the massive divide between the state’s haves and the have-nots, with people living in poverty while private jets fly into the beach resorts just up the coast; and, er, alligators.
As a series first, you’ll be playing female protagonist Lucia and her (currently) unnamed partner. The lovers look to give Grand Theft Auto 6 a Bonnie and Clyde edge, seeing you trying to make a life for yourselves in Leonida state.
Every time Rockstar releases a game, it moves what’s possible in games forward; the talented studio can take the time to fill their open worlds with detail and fine-tune them to a quality unmatched by other studios. Details of what is new in GTA 6 are still thin on the ground, but rest assured, it will be something special.
Borderlands 4
Release date: September 23
After a five-year wait, developer Gearbox Software is finally ready to release a new Borderlands game. However, fans should get ready for some big changes. To start, say goodbye to Pandora.
Borderlands 4 takes place on a whole new planet, shifting the action away from the loot-stuffed home of the first three games. Gearbox has also revealed that you’ll be playing with an entirely new set of vault hunters, each with a unique skill tree and set of abilities to master.
The team says it is looking to deepen the RPG side of the looter-shooter’s long-established formula, which may see you making more meaningful choices across Borderland 4’s campaign.
As long-time fans of the series, we may be a little biased. After all, to celebrate the launch of Borderlands 3, we produced a special Ballantine’s Moxxi’s Bar Edition.
Want to discover more gaming content? Check out the Ballantine’s Gaming hub for more content.
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