With so much landing at once, finding the true must-plays can feel overwhelming. But after digging through everything 2025 has to offer, these 15 titles rose above the rest.

The nominees for the best Xbox games of 2025 are:

The Outer Worlds 2

If you liked The Outer Worlds 1, you’ll absolutely adore the sequel. The Outer Worlds 2 triples down on what makes the setting work so well by translating a lot of that directly into gameplay. The Shrink Ray is a great example of that, and so are the many guns, among plenty of other oddities. Beyond the expanded gameplay suite, the quests now offer more varied routing and decision-making than before, placing you firmly in the driver’s seat as you navigate the corporate dystopia within the colony of Arcadia. And thanks to Game Pass, you don’t even have to pay full retail price, giving Xbox a clear leg up over other platforms.

Keeper

Keeper is an indie game that absolutely deserves more attention. Its blend of genres—base-building, mystery, and survival—is executed with smart quality-of-life features and genuinely fun mechanics. Keeper is also a visual standout. The painterly art style and atmospheric music elevate an already addictive gameplay loop, making it easy to lose entire evenings to it. Even with all the AAA blockbusters dropping in 2025, Keeper keeps pulling us right back in.

Battlefield 6

Well, DICE has finally done it—they’ve knocked a Battlefield out of the park for the first time in what feels like ages. This large-scale objective-based FPS recaptures everything players loved about Battlefield 4, with improved squad play, and smartly designed maps that reward coordinated tactics. Paired with phenomenal graphics and impressive performance, Battlefield 6 represents a true return to the glory days of this tactical warfare genre.

Clair Obscur: Expedition

Expedition does just about everything you could ask for in a video game. Its art direction is striking and original, the turn-based timing mechanics add an addictive twist to the classic formula, and the story and characters deliver all the emotional punch RPG fans crave. It’s a masterful consolidation of what makes games unforgettable, making it an obvious frontrunner for multiple game awards.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

I can’t say enough good things about this game, so I’ll be brief. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is simply the most impressive open-world RPG released in recent memory. It sets a new benchmark for main storylines in open-world games, and its side quests are absolutely worth seeking out. You again play as Henry, the down-on-his-luck everyman trying to survive in medieval Europe, and the grounded role-playing systems make this feel like a true immersive-sim experience. From herb brewing to blacksmithing and countless other mechanics, it’s a dense, reactive world. It’s also a visual powerhouse that shines on the Xbox Series X.

Ninja Gaiden 4

You’ve gotta appreciate how unapologetically “video gamey” Ninja Gaiden 4 is. It’s a full-throttle return to the hardcore character-action games of the 2000s, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. The standout highlight, of course, is its buttery-smooth, lightning-fast combat. Few games in 2025 were as rewarding to master as Ninja Gaiden 4’s combo-heavy battle system. Add a story that respects the series’ lore and a crisp graphics/performance package, and you’ve got an easy fan favorite.

Atomfall

In a year with many RPGs, it’s somehow a lower-scale release from the Sniper Elite studio that stands out. This retro-futuristic RPG benefits from Rebellion’s reliably strong gunplay, while its crafting and survival systems create an engaging gameplay loop that encourages all the looting you could want. But it’s the clever environmental storytelling and branching narrative that make this one warrant multiple playthroughs. If you like Fallout in any capacity, you owe it to yourself to give Atomfall a shot.

Elden Ring: Nightreign

Nightreign may not be what the purely single-player crowd hoped for, but it proves that FromSoftware is more than capable of branching out from their usual formula. Yes, the game still takes place in a familiar though dramatically rearranged Lands Between, but its wild new bosses and fast-paced co-op structure make it hard to put down once you start.

Dynasty Warriors: Origins

If you’ve never played a Musou game before, this is the place to start. It’s a reboot that refines and enhances everything about the series while telling the Three Kingdoms narrative from a fresh cinematic angle. Battles are as massive as ever, with hundreds of enemies on-screen posing a threat to your larger-than-life warrior. Seeing all the familiar Three Kingdoms characters fully voice-acted with lengthy scripts is a genuine delight; this is some of the strongest character work the franchise has ever seen.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows

It’s been a long time coming, but a feudal Japan Assassin’s Creed has been finally delivered. Classic AC stealth is represented through the shinobi Naoe, while Yasuke the samurai offers a more arcade-y brawler playstyle. The dual-protagonist structure broadens the narrative while executing the most robust gameplay suite the series has ever featured. But the true star is the setting. Sixteenth-century Japan looks spectacular thanks to the dynamic weather, day/night cycle, and diverse biomes.

DOOM: The Dark Ages

I don’t know how, but id Software continues to reinvent Doom’s gameplay with every installment. This time, the Doom Slayer arms himself with medieval armor and a brutal flail, turning the familiar demon-slaying chaos into something both fresh and ferocious. Between the heavy metal soundtrack and the medieval enemies, Doom: The Dark Ages feels new while still preserving everything fans love about the genre.

Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 may largely stick to the established formula, but it refines its looter-shooter DNA in meaningful ways. The standout improvement is the loot system: drop rates feel more balanced and quality-of-life upgrades like a dedicated legendary icon finally make sorting your haul painless. Meanwhile, combat remains as sharp satisfying as ever. With its biggest open world yet and the strongest gameplay in the series, Borderlands 4 is the 2025’s best looter-shooter.

Black Myth: Wukong

Xbox players can finally enjoy what many considered 2024’s Game of the Year. Nailing the FromSoftware-inspired formula while maintaining a wholly unique identity is no easy task, yet Game Science managed to exceed expectations. The animation work surrounding the protagonist’s transformations and abilities is exceptional, and the setting is truly enchanting. It’s easy to lose track of time battling a tough boss, but the lean, focused level design respects that time without adding any unnecessary bloat.

Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is another smash hit from 2024 arriving on Xbox platforms, and it’s an absolute treat. Servers have been smooth and reliable, and frequent updates keep missions, objectives, and enemy factions feeling fresh. Few squad-based games are as funny, chaotic, and endlessly replayable as Helldivers 2. If you’re on Xbox, now is the perfect time to dive in.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

What an absolute delight it was to see Bethesda shadow-drop a remake of one of their most influential titles back in April. The best part is how faithful the remaster remains to the original while still looking fantastic on modern hardware. Many longtime fans may miss the old bloom-heavy aesthetic, but this remaster nails the lighting and texture work on a technical level. Quality-of-life additions—like a sprint toggle and new combat animations—make this the ideal way to experience Oblivion. Best of all, it releases at a reasonable price and includes all DLC and expansions.

And the Best Xbox Game of 2025 Goes to:

Clair Obscur: Expedition

Expedition is tailor-made for those who cherish the artistic and interactive potential of video games. Its gripping, gut-wrenching story and deep yet familiar battle system keep you hooked from start to finish. It’s a complete experience in every sense. More importantly, it embraces its identity wholeheartedly. The enemies are unlike anything else in modern gaming; you don’t see masked  many nightmare inspired creatures in any other RPGs, for example.

Its exploration of themes like fate and sacrifice may sound derivative on paper, but in execution it feels like a classic story reimagined through a unique lens. Only video games can convey this blend of style, timing-based combat, and narrative impact so cohesively. And so, Expedition rises to the top as our favorite Xbox game of 2025. It fires on all cylinders, and does so with a voice that is distinctly its own.

While the files can no longer be seen, they were seemingly accidentally revealed to the public. Two of the screenshots were spotted, and can be seen on the Reddit thread discussing the remake.

For context, Virtuos Games is a studio that has worked with companies on a host of major game releases across a wide range of disciplines. It’s assisted with game development work on Dark Souls: Remastered, Judas and Outriders, and on art production for major games like League of Legends and Stellar Blade.

The studio also has a history of working on games across various platforms and budget categories, from smaller-scaled titles like Dave the Diver to major releases like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and New World: Aeternum.

While neither Bethesda nor Virtuos have made any official announcement about a remake for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, quite a few details have been circulating around thanks to various rumours and leaks. According to a rumour from back in January, the title has been fully remade on Unreal Engine 5 rather than Bethesda’s own engine.

Along with this change in engine, the remake will also feature a number of changes to its gameplay, including changes to sneaking, how blocking works, archery, and even enemy hit reactions. How Stamina works, along with the entire HUD, has been completely redesigned according to reports.

When it comes to actually releasing the title, a rumour from this week indicates that Bethesda might be getting ready to launch the game quite soon. According to the report, Bethesda will apparently shadow drop The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in the week of April 21.

As its name might imply, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is the fourth mainline title in the RPG franchise. Originally released on PC and Xbox 360 all the way back in March 2006, the title was considered to be something of a mixed bag when it came to the changes it made over its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind.

While Oblivion was praised for its overall gameplay and setting, critics also noted that the title had issues with its levelling systems where, because of the way enemies scaled in level with the player, it wouldn’t be difficult to end up with a much weaker character than expected.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion also got two major expansion releases: The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. Along with this, it also got a host of smaller DLC, including the infamous Horse Armour. For more details on the game, check out our thoughts on how well the classic RPG holds up today, where we noted that it is still a charming game even today thanks to its world and the (at the time) revolutionary AI schedule system.

Journalist Jeff Grubb spoke about The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion’s rumoured remake on a recent episode of his daily Giant Bomb news podcast, GameBreaking News, where he claimed it’s scheduled to release sometime during the week of April 21- i.e., the final week of the month. An exact release date is still unknown, but the window’s certainly narrowed down, and it looks like it won’t be long before the game releases. 

Prior leaks have claimed that the Oblivion remake will be a fully overhauled version of the game, built on Unreal Engine 5 and featuring a reworked stamina system, new UI, reworked archery and blocking mechanics, and more. Read more on that through here.

Caught by VGC, on a recent Giant Bomb livestream, Grubb claimed that the Virtuos-developed remake is going to “shadow drop at any moment,” with a release allegedly due for some time this month. That, incidentally, aligns with recent claims by prominent leaker NateTheHate. 

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion’s remake has allegedly been developed in Unreal Engine 5, and on top of a visual and technical overhaul, it features various gameplay improvements. The title will reportedly feature changes to stealth mechanics, the UI, stamina management, archery, some aspects of melee combat, and more. Read more on that through here.

Which platforms the remake will launch is unknown. However, based on Microsoft’s increasing multiplatform focus, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it arrive on all available platforms day and date. Stay tuned for more updates.

Taking to Twitter, the leaker recently claimed that the remake will be officially announced as soon as either this month or April, and that it will release earlier than June, which was the original internal target. Interestingly, the leaker’s claims have also been corroborated by VGC, which claims the game would even release sometime next month.

The Oblivion remake is allegedly being developed on Unreal Engine 5, with several major gameplay changes also being implemented, according to leaks from earlier in the year.

Given Microsoft’s shifting strategy over the past year, presumably, Oblivion will be a multiplatform title day and date. We should know for sure one way or another when the announcement arrives, so stay tuned for further details.

Either this month or next month. Release is likely to be sooner than the original June target; but still working to get details on an updated release date.

— NateTheHate2 (@NateTheHate2) March 11, 2025

That’s as per journalist Tom Warren, who has claimed in newsletter on The Verge that the open world action RPG remake is targeting a release sometime in late Spring or early Summer, based on what he’s been told.

Rumours first emerged in 2023 that Bethesda’s acclaimed 2006 RPG was being remade in collaboration with Virtuos. The project allegedly uses a combination of the original title’s engine and Unreal Engine 5. A recent report claimed that the remake will feature several gameplay enhancements, with reworks for blocking, stamina mechanics, archery, sneaking mechanics, and more.

Earlier this month, a Virtuos employee’s LinkedIn project made mention of an unannounced Unreal Engine 5 remake, further adding fuel to the rumours surrounding the Oblivion remake. Read more on that through here.

Omitting their name for the sake of privacy, MP1st noted a description on their website reportedly confirming that the title is “fully remade” in Unreal Engine 5. Several changes to Sneak, Blocking, Archery, Hit Reaction, the HUD, and Stamina are also allegedly listed.

Some more notable improvements include inspiration from Souls-like titles for blocking, highlighted Sneak icons, and making it much more difficult to get knocked down when Stamina is fully depleted. Hit reactions for combat, improvements to Archery, and a more “aesthetically pleasing” HUD are also reportedly included.

With a Virtuos Shanghai employee also confirming work on an unannounced Unreal Engine 5 remake, the stage is seemingly set for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake’s announcement. It’s allegedly launching in June after its announcement this month, so stay tuned for more details.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the prospect of an Oblivion remake – heck even a remaster would have big implications. Would the remake host the same kind of modding freedom as the original? And if this turns out to be nothing more than a prettied up remaster with UE5 sparkles, why not just use the boatload of existing mods that not only pretty up the game but improve core gameplay elements? Debates are also swirling about how this remake will impact the ongoing Skyblivion fan project – an ambitious attempt at remaking Oblivion in the Skyrim engine whilst improving dungeon design and other outdated elements.

The likely prospect of a remaster poses the question: does Oblivion hold up today? Let’s explore what a remake would need to both overhaul and retain to provide the ideal Elder Scrolls IV experience. But first, the elephant in the room … no, not the  potato faces and meme-worthy voice lines, the absolutely awful difficulty scaling. Oblivion features one of the most broken level scaling systems out of any game I’m aware of. The ‘use it to level it’ system is ubiquitous across the series but pairing that with enemies that scale to the player’s overall level result in a monumental imbalance fraught with flaws.

My first journey through Oblivion echoes the experience of many others. After watching the epic opening staring Patrick Stewart as the emperor and Jeremy Soule’s legendary music, I spam the crouch button to find, to my delight, that I levelled up. Naturally, I crouch every chance I get after this realization. That is, until I jump to see my Acrobatics level up. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this lead me. I ended up with acrobatics and sneak levels more than twice as high as my other attributes. I felt like I was on a fast track to out-level my opponents, since of course, attribute levels contribute to one’s overall level increase. I quickly found myself getting pounded by high ranking Daedra kitted with glass armor during the battle of Kvatch and with nothing to defend myself with but useless acrobatics, stealth, and mercantile attributes. In short, Oblivion gives you the illusion of freedom when in reality, it punishes you for prioritizing non-combat skills and attributes. An Oblivion remake or remaster needs to address this imbalanced level scaling issue in order to exude the kind of quality it needs to succeed … unless you just use a level scaling mod, if the remake supports mods, that is.

NPCs also made vanilla Oblivion feel outdated to play, thanks in no small part to the small pool of voice talent and repeated lines. I like to give Oblivion credit for inventing radiant AI in games, but that too was a bit rough around the edges due to its newness. Running into the same NPC only to hear them have three different voices and repeated dialogue sure did break the illusion of a living breathing world. And let’s not bring up how often an NPC would accidentally get killed or bug out. Still, the NPCs all having month-long schedules featuring sleep timetables, where they eat for breakfast and dinner, and who they talk to, remains one of the most revolutionary systems in games. Few games match the scope that Oblivion did back in 2006.

Another innovative element within Oblivion was the then-new Havok physics engine which allowed the player to manipulate anything from enemy corpses to sweet rolls. I’ll never forget firing my first arrow at the bucket in the sewer tutorial area and being blown away by how realistic the bucket would react to weight and force. Even today, lots of open world games lack that kind of visceral physics impact regarding ragdoll effects and manipulation of environmental objects, so this is still an area that can impress with the added bells and whistles of a remake or remaster today.

Of course, at the center of any TES game is the open world exploration, and in this Oblivion did not disappoint. The majestic forests of Cyrodiil provided a good amount of density divided between cities, ruins, dungeons, Oblivion Gates, and various other unmarked places of interest. The impressive NPC schedules and quality of questlines helped support Oblivion’s open world exploration. Of course, a remake could help erase the feeling of ‘sameness’ that Cyrodiil exhibits by adding more diverse architecture and variation in environmental terrain to differentiate the ubiquitous oak tree forests.

Like the samey outdoor environments, dungeons in Oblivion lacked curated design and personality. Every dungeon feels more or less the same, with a randomized scattering of assets and traps and no shortcut back to the entrance, making the trek even more annoying. This is one area that Skyblivion is successfully remedying with hand-crafted dungeons featuring unique layouts and traps, something we hope the remake or remaster can attempt to fix as well.

Combat usually spices up a dull dungeon, but not in Oblivion’s case. Like other Elder Scrolls titles, fighting in Oblivion feels weightless and rather tepid. Your melee consists of a basic one-two swing, heavy attack, and block. Magic is more interesting, but still rather simple and lacking in viscerality. A remake could add combo attacks unique to each weapon type or at least some better sound effects and viscerality.

By contrast, the questlines in Oblivion are regarded as some of the most interesting and satisfying in the series. The Dark Brotherhood and Shivering Isles questlines are particularly noteworthy, but the game’s main quest is unusually great as well. I say unusually because The Elder Scrolls has a well-earned reputation for its throwaway main storylines. Oblivion’s main quest features the voice talent of Sean Bean as Brother Martin, the rightful heir to the recently murdered Uriel Septim. Your interactions with Martin are well written and, perhaps more importantly, serve to highlight him as the main hero of the story and not your character. Oblivion is the only Elder Scrolls that doesn’t suffer from ‘main character syndrome’ – the repeating Bethesda trope where the entire story revolves around you. Helping establish an heir to the empty throne is rather satisfying in Oblivion, and the spectacle of the set-pieces (like the Daedric Prince stomping around the Imperial City) is too awesome to ignore here. Best of all, you can permanently shut down all of the Oblivion gates when finishing the main quest, and what better reward is there than that?

Oblivion still has its charms today, with a revolutionary AI schedule system, a beautiful open world, and some great quests to invest in. Even with its legacy and memeability, Oblivion can be difficult to return to in its vanilla state. Janky combat and a frustratingly unbalanced level scaling systems understandably steer some gamers clear of the game today. There’s plenty of mods out there that improve aspects of gameplay and graphics, so the question arises: why remake it all these years later? Well, there’s clearly still a lot of demand for an Oblivion remake, as seen by the support that Skyblivion has received through the years. How this Oblivion remake will compete with Skyblivion remains to be seen, and just what it’ll add or improve is just as much a mystery. We’ll have to wait until the Xbox Direct to see if it leans more toward a full-on remake or a lightly brushed up remaster, but here’s hoping at least one or more of the major flaws get addressed either way.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Now, the LinkedIn profile of a Virtuous employee seems to be lending weight to those rumours as well. On his profile, Oleksii Moskovchenko, a technical art director at Virtuos’ Shanghai studio, claims to be working on an unannounced remake built on Unreal Engine 5. He also claims the title will be released for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, suggesting that Microsoft will continue its string of multiplatform releases – which shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point.

Leaks in December claimed that Microsoft and Bethesda could be gearing up to announce the Oblivion remake at the rumoured Xbox Developer Direct presentation planned for January, with a release set to follow sometime later this year itself. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days.

That’s as per extas1s, a prominent Xbox leaker. With reports alleging with increasing confidence that Microsoft has another annual Xbox Developer Direct presentation scheduled for January, extas1s has thrown his weight behind those claims as well, and as per the leaker, the remake for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion could be one of the titles set to be announced.

In the original leaks that supposedly revealed the existent of the remake, it was claimed that the game was using both, the original title’s codebase, as well as a new Unreal Engine 5 pipeline, and that it was targeting a late 2024/early 2025 release. Obviously, it seems like launch plans may have changed behind the scenes (assuming that that earlier leak was accurate), but if a release in 2025 is still planned, an announcement in January would make sense. 

The Elder Scrolls 6 started full production only a little over a year ago, which means the long-awaited fantasy RPG is still years away from release. A return to a beloved older entry would certainly be a crowd-pleasing announcement, then.