Our Most Wanted Games of 2025 – #20 to #16

08 Jan 2025, 10:00 by Stefan L · tsa

There’s a good bit for Xbox fans in this set of five Most Wanted 2025 games, with a pair of exclusives that are coming from Compulsion Games and Playground Games respectively. Sure, we might have doubts about whether they’ll stay as exclusives for very long, these days, but they should be a good reason to pick up an asymmetrical gamepad… or boot up your gaming PC.

20 – Dying Light: The Beast

PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC – TBC

Morphing out of the DLC plans for Dying Light 2, Dying Light: The Beast has grown into a standalone game, bringing back the fan favourite protagonist from the original game, Kyle Crane. It’s been thirteen years since we last saw him, and he’s now exploring the post-apocalyptic Castor Woods, a region filled with both human factions and monsters.

Kyle himself is no longer truly human, the zombie DNA fully merging with his own to provide some major new powers – he is the titular Beast, if you hadn’t guessed.

We got to go hands on back at Gamescom 2024, and you can check out our preview impressions here.

19 – Two Point Museum

PS5, XSX|S, PC – 4th March 2025

Having revolutionised healthcare and teaching across Two Point County, where to next for this tongue-in-cheek management sim series? Well, why not dust some old bones and tomes in the museums of this world? Also… ghosts?

Two Point Museum is bringing plenty of new ideas to the table, as you build out museums around each theme, soak in all of the pun-laden artefacts and beings that you can exhibit, and curate entertaining tours to inform and enlighten your visitors… and convince them to toss a coin into your donation pitcher.

We’ve played the opening few levels and had a grand time digging into the new setting. Read our Two Point Museum preview here.

18 – South of Midnight

XSX|S, PC – 2025

Coming from Compulsion Games, the makers of We Happy Few, South of Midnight looks to be something rather different, whisking us away to the fantasy world of Prospero and confronting our heroine Hazel with giant sea monsters.

The game features an almost claymation visual style, blending together action adventure exploration with Bayonetta-style combat. The world blends together vibes of the deep south of America with giant, island-sized alligators and more, which you’ll come across after a hurricane has ripped across this world.

17 – Civilization VII

PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, NSW, PC – 11th February 2025

There’s been a good few pretenders to the throne emerging over the last few years, but Civilization VII is arriving in just over a month to firmly put its stamp on the historical 4X genre once more.

This game will tackle the concept of shifting ages, just as the genre as a whole has been. Split into three distinct ages – Antiquity, Exploration and Modern – each civ is restricted to a particular time period and then has to grow and morph into another through a point of crisis. Rome will eventually fall, but that can provide the historical and gameplay foundations to become any number of medieval empires – the Holy Roman Empire, perhaps? – and from there lead into modern European nations.

We went hands on with Civ VII back at Gamescom 2024, as well as having the opportunity to speak with Creative Director Ed Beach about this major new direction for the series.

16 – Fable

XSX|S, PC – 2025

We’re putting a lot of trust in Playground Games and Xbox with this one. It’s been years since the formal announcement of Fable in 2020, which had already been long-rumoured to be in the works, and every occasional reappearance at Xbox showcases has been heavily reliant on lusciously produced cinematics and an understated British sense of humour, rather than gameplay. Still, Fable is supposedly on track for release in 2025.

To be charitable, the most recent trailer from last June does state that it’s “in-game footage” and shift between clips that could be representative of in-game dialogue scenes and wandering through the environments, building up to some quick shots of combat. It does look very, very pretty, as the baton is passed from the now retired hero Humphry to a new hero.

One we want to see much, much more of, and which we’d expect is coming later, rather than sooner. There’s other big first party Xbox games expected before then!

That’s not the half of it for Xbox and PC gamers this year, with more exclusives still to come as we approach the top 10.