This month has everything: Medieval role-playing, legendary strategy, unforgiving monster-hunting action, and a one-eyed yakuza who lost his memory and thinks he's a pirate.
Seriously—there's something for just about any kind of gamer here, from comedy to fantasy, and strategy to action. Last year was an excellent one for games, and it already seems like 2025 will hit the same heights.
Below are our favorite highlights from the month. And beyond these, a few honorable mentions worth watching include Ninja Five-O, Rift of the Necrodancer, and Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered.
Editor's note: All of the games on this month's list are traditional "Web2" video games with no known crypto or blockchain elements. But you might like 'em anyway.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Release Date: February 4
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
The semi-historical RPG returns with a sequel, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This game picks up where the first left off, with an extensive cut-scene summing up the first game's events for newcomers.
The game features two new maps to explore, each roughly the size of the first game. One centerpiece of the game is the massive city of Kuttenberg, which sports a scale and complexity that far outstrips the original game—and yet it still reportedly performs far better than the first does even today.
The team has streamlined combat, and guns are now available when you need to drop an enemy right now. Don't expect enemies to politely wait while you reload, though. Overall, this is a massive expansion on the original in every way that matters.
Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Release Date: February 11
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One
Sid Meier's Civilization was released on PC in 1991. Over 30 years later, the series is still trucking along as one of the best games in the 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) genre of games.
Civilization VII is now split into three ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. With each age, you'll retain your chosen leader but select a new civilization to move forward.
Leaders are no longer linked to civilizations; each age ends with a crisis event that will influence how you move forward. If this Civ is anything like the previous entries, then you'll find yourself saying "One more turn" until it's too late to be productive the next day.
The Biggest Games Releasing in January 2025
When it comes to game releases, the only time of year as traditionally slow as December is January. Holiday shopping is done, people are busy chasing resolutions, and they've spent all the money they want to spend for a little bit. Also, The Game Awards have already happened, and games from December and January are often forgotten for consideration the next time around. There's not a lot of reason to release a game right now. As such, this month is pretty slow—especially when you consider what a...
Avowed
Release Date: February 18
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S
Avowed is the latest game from Obsidian, the developer behind games like Fallout New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and Grounded.
Set in the world of Pillars of Eternity (you don't need to play it to enjoy this), you're charged with investigating rumors of a plague in the Living Lands.
In this first-person RPG, you can customize your character with magic, swords, and guns to play your way as you explore the world around you.
Rather than going for a massive open-world game, though, Obsidian has focused on creating smaller, richer spaces filled with quests and characters to discover and meet.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Release Date: February 21
Platforms: PC, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S + One
Skull & Bones, eat your heart out. In between entries in the Like a Dragon series (aka Yakuza), Sega's RGG Studio is eating your lunch.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii puts you in the shoes of series frenemy Goro Majima. He's lost his memories and is washed ashore on a deserted island. He does what any sane person would do: set sail in the seas around Hawaii in a pirate ship.
He gets caught up in a conflict and has to assemble his own pirate crew for ship-to-ship and man-to-man combat. You know, that old tale.
Love Card Gaming Sensation 'Balatro'? Play These Games Next
The surprise hit of 2024 was Balatro, a quirky little roguelike deck-builder that used standard playing cards combined with jokers with weird powers. It also features a bunch of modifiers that make the game addictive, with scores starting in the hundreds but quickly reaching massive numbers—even beyond a trillion. I have put about 90 hours into the game, and I know people who have progressed into the hundreds of hours trying to unlock every card, deck type, and stake. Forget Winter: Dive Into T...
Monster Hunter Wilds
Release Date: February 28
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
We've been waiting a while for this one.
Monster Hunter World was released in 2018, and turned Capcom's storied Monster Hunter franchise from a niche thing for hardcore nerds into a massive hit... for hardcore nerds.
This entry not only has an entirely new campaign and improved graphics, but also brings several new features that give you new ways to hunt your prey.
You can carry a backup weapon on your mount for the first time, letting you switch from an unwieldy greatsword to a bow and arrow when you suddenly find yourself battling a flying beast.
Armor is no longer gender-locked, too, so you can look exactly how you want to look. There are also new gameplay changes, like a "focus mode" to zero in on weak points, and quality-of-life changes to things like the broken monster part collection.
And that's just what they've told us so far.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
