Ai, Crysis, Lusty Argonians, And Pinball: These Are Our Most-read...

A look back at the year that was, as chosen (sort of) by you.

Day in and day out, we cover a lot of news here at PC Gamer: Politics, AI, crime, moral panics in a capitalist hellscape, and yes, videogames—lots and lots of videogames. We do it all, and with 2025 drawing to a close we're casting a look back on the year that was, with a selection of stories chosen not by us, but by you: These are our most-read news stories of 2025.

It is, as always, quite a mix, but the reverse Midas touch of AI figures prominently this year: In fact, two of our three most-read stories of 2025 are about people who put their faith in the machine and got a handful of wet garbage in return.

But not our number one most-read story of the year, which is a very human, and very funny, tale: A reminder that our essential humanity is far greater and more powerful than anything a slop machine can produce, no matter how many "ideas" it steals from the internet. With the future sometimes looking a little uncertain, I find that heartening.

Without further ado, then, here it is: Our 20 most-read stories of 2025. Happy new year!

'Bad AI' is one of the most common complaints about videogames, especially among those of us who've spent any amount of time on escort missions. Will Wright says The Sims, his groundbreaking life sim game, had the opposite problem: They were too damn smart, at least when it came to prioritizing their specific needs. "In early versions of the game, the autonomy was too good. Almost anything the player did was worse than the Sims running on autopilot," Wright said in February.

Maxis had to dial it back, which occasionally led to some unfortunate toilet-related side effects; sequels have improved things, reducing the need to micromanage individual Sims quite so much (although some players still do).

Instead of dropping the cease-and-desist hammer on Skyblivion, the long-running effort to recreate The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in Skyrim, Bethesda took the opposite approach ahead of the highly successful launch of Oblivion Remastered: It gave Oblivion Remastered game keys to the entire Skyblivion development team and "made it clear that they have no intention of shutting down our project."

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

It was a big PR win for Bethesda, who came off as unambiguous good guys, and an easy one too: Oblivion Remastered was a big hit, and Skyblivion remains unreleased, having recently

Source: PC Gamer