Summary
- Graphics across games are consistently fantastic in this era, making it a delight for contemporary gamers.
- Video game narratives have evolved to the point where they rival storytelling in other popular media, like films and television.
- Many video game genres are now refined and smooth due to past trial and error, providing a more enjoyable experience for players.
It can be tough to stay positive in today's gaming landscape. Between increasing prices, studio closures, canceled games, and the seemingly endless monetization of new releases, there's a lot of frustration among gamers about the current state of the industry, and it can feel like things are only getting worse.
Terrible Gaming Trends That Will Not DIE
Innovations happen in gaming all the time, often for the better, but for whatever reason, these awful trends just refuse to go away.
However, there are also reasons to be positive. Every gaming era has had its downsides, but there are lots of reasons why gaming is in a great place right now. That doesn't mean that the issues within the industry should be ignored, but sometimes, it's nice to look at all the good things that gaming has going for it in 2025. There are tons of great trends going on in gaming right now, and for a change, we're going to look at the best things about being a gamer in the modern day.
Peak Graphical Fidelity
Video Games Have Never Looked Better
There was a time, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, when games were marketed solely on their visuals. Graphics were the be-all and end-all of video game elitism, and any game that boasted cutting-edge visual fidelity was automatically a big-ticket release, regardless of what playing the game was actually like.
Today, video game graphics have reached a bit of a plateau. Games are still pushing the limits of what graphics can achieve, but the leaps forward have become increasingly minor. This isn't a negative; in fact, all it means is that, for the most part, every game has excellent graphics. We live in an age where gaming consistently looks fantastic, regardless of art style or genre. Being spoiled for choice from a graphical perspective may mean that visuals are no longer a major selling point for video games. However, it's still a positive that gamers don't need to wonder if their next purchase will have lackluster graphics.
Strong Narratives
Video Games Now Rival The Writing In Film, Television, And Novels
Older video games struggled to find their narrative groove. For every gem like System Shock or Chrono Trigger, there were 100 Duke Nukems and Mortal Kombats. These games only really included a story to check off the box, but put very little effort into plot or character development.
Ranking The Top 8 Action Games With The Best Stories
Some action games carry themselves entirely on their gameplay, but others choose bring a great narrative to the table as the cherry on top.
It took a long time for the demand from gamers to push developers into focusing on video game narratives, and even longer for those developers to get the hang of writing a story where the player was in control 90% of the time, as opposed to watching events play out on-screen. However, while there are still games that phone in their story aspects, it is far more common to get multiple games per year that feature standout narratives, and the best of the bunch tell stories that rival anything produced by film, television, or novels in recent years.
Established Controls And Systems
Genres Are No Longer Janky By Nature
Other than first-person shooters and RTS games on PC, it took a long time for video game genres to establish their foundations. FPS games on consoles used the controller bumpers for "Shoot" and "Aim Down Sights" for years. Meanwhile, third-person shooters were widely accepted as just being janky messes until Gears of War came around. Third-person melee combat? Forget about it. The best thing on offer was "Hold down Square/B to hit forever."
Today, many of these weaknesses have been ironed out through trial and error. FPS controls on consoles are now basically set in stone. Third-person shooters now employ consistent mechanics that make interacting with cover and aiming around the environment more intuitive. And FromSoftware basically wrote the guidebook on how to make third-person melee combat feel fantastic. These are just three examples, but there are plenty more, from RTS games on consoles to space combat. Unless they're coming up with an entirely new genre or actively looking to change the industry standard, developers have a template for any genre they're looking to create within, making it easier for players to pick up their games and immediately feel comfortable playing them.
Auteurism
Choosing Studios, Not Consoles
The console wars were a big deal, and they were essentially the primary decision maker in terms of which games players were going to buy. "PlayStation has Uncharted." "Oh yeah? Well, Xbox has Halo." "Whatever, Nintendo has Smash." "That's cool, PC has World of Warcraft." For multiple generations, this was the conversation among gamers: not who was making the games, but which platforms could run them.
Today, the console wars are all but over, especially with Xbox exclusives making their way to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. Instead, gamers are focusing more on the studios behind their favorite games. Developers like FromSoftware, CD Projekt Red, Naughty Dog, Supergiant, Sucker Punch, Insomniac, and more have all produced games of such a consistently high quality that they basically have carte blanche from gamers to make whatever they want, because players trust them to make something good. Other studios, like Bloober Team, Larian, Team Ninja, and PlatinumGames, are gradually building their reputations to reach that same standard. It's a positive trend to see that the people behind the games are getting credit for their quality, rather than simply being associated with the consoles that bought the IPs. Encouraging talented creators to keep making good games is a great way to ensure that the gaming industry produces quality content.
Community
Online Groups Help Make Solo Players Feel Welcome
In the PS2 and even the PS3 days, the internet was still in its "Wild West" phase. Finding a decent walkthrough for a tough game was always a challenge, and when it came to tracking down other friendly people who were playing the same games, it was always a toss-up. Players were just as likely to get suckered into a scam as they were to find a consistent gaming partner outside of their friend group.
Today, communities form around video games even before they launch. While they don't always stay active, online communities for games like Dead by Daylight, Warframe, or Apex Legends are extremely welcoming to newcomers and are happy to show them the ropes and help them get the hang of the current meta. Other, more casual games, like Minecraft, boast multiple communities that match different playstyles. Want to build a cool town? No problem. Want to explore the new update? There's a group for that, too. Want to join an existing server? Welcome aboard. It's a lot easier for a solo gamer to get involved with an online game than it was even 10 years ago, and while gaming still has a reputation for being toxic to newbies, it's far more common to meet kind strangers in most games these days.
Second Chances
Games Can Recover From Rough Launches
Reviews hold a lot of power in the gaming world. One bad review won't sink a game, but a consensus of bad reviews can easily cause a new release to crash and burn before it even gets off the ground. It's a sad truth about the gaming industry that players simply don't have time to play everything, nor can they afford to, so they need to be stingy with what they buy. For most people to buy a game at launch, it needs to review well.
However, a new trend has emerged that adds a caveat to this. Occasionally, a game can be released in a terrible state or come loaded with microtransactions, and the reviews will reflect that. What has changed is that the developers of those games have a small window in which they can respond to player feedback, acknowledge their game's issues, and then get to work on fixing them. While it doesn't have a 100% success rate, we have seen games rise from the ashes with this approach, and they often become beloved titles after the fact. No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077, and Final Fantasy 14 are the most famous examples, but it's something that is gradually becoming more common. It's a rarity for any major creative studio to recognize that they may have dropped the ball, but only in gaming can they release a steady trickle of updates to fix the issues their game is burdened with. It's an extremely good thing that doing so often leads those studios to greater success, because that will only encourage other developers to follow suit.
Returning Classics
Remakes And New Entries Are Bringing Old Franchises Back Into The Spotlight
The classic games of old helped establish the gaming medium and were a formative experience for many younger gamers. With that said, many of them—hell, most of them—haven't exactly aged well. Dated graphics, clunky controls, strange camera angles, weak narratives, rough voice acting, the list goes on. There are a lot of reasons why, despite nostalgia, many gamers prefer modern games to retro experiences, although there are obviously exceptions to that rule.
Upcoming Role-Playing Games People Are Excited For
While plenty of RPGs have been announced for 2026 and beyond, these upcoming role-playing games are especially exciting.
What's great to see from the modern gaming industry is that many of those older classic series are getting current-gen remakes or outright continuations on modern consoles. The Resident Evil remakes have been smash hits and are largely considered significant improvements over the originals in every case. Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth went beyond simply being remade and expanded upon the existing game, adding a broader narrative and, in some ways, acting as more of a sequel trilogy than a remake. Meanwhile, Ninja Gaiden 4 is set to release later in 2025, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword is an upcoming remake of the classic samurai survival horror series that hopes to revitalize the franchise for a new, modern gaming audience. Bringing these games back benefits gamers both old and new, as it allows veterans to experience a more polished version of their favorite childhood games while showing newcomers why these titles were so popular in their heyday.
Quality Adaptations
Video Game Movies And TV Shows Are No Longer Soulless Cash Grabs
Oh boy, the video game adaptations of old were bad. A few of them had redeeming qualities; the first Silent Hill movie was ok, and the Resident Evil movies had their charms, but they weren't "good adaptations." They were barely good movies at all, but because of the often terrible video game movies of the era, they got a pass. How things have changed.
From animated Netflix series like Arcane, Castlevania, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, to live-action adaptations like The Last of Us and Fallout, to feature-length movies like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, video game adaptations have come a long way. Gamers no longer feel a sense of dread when they hear their favorite games are being made into a movie or TV show. This has a lot to do with a large group of gamers growing up and becoming filmmakers themselves, which means they understand and respect the source material they're working with. In other cases, it's simply a matter of film studios recognizing the financial potential of a quality video game adaptation. While they aren't all hits, it used to be almost a guarantee that a video game adaptation would be a soulless creation that completely missed what made the games they were inspired by special. Today, not only is that not the case, but in many instances, these adaptations elevate what's present in the games, acting as a companion to the source material and not just a carbon copy.
Best 2025 Games That Are Easily GOTY Contenders
Fall 2025 is just around the corner, and while a few major releases are still on their way, this is how things stand for the year's GOTY contenders.