The Rogueies: Best AAA Game nominees

Big studio games with multi-million dollar budgets are almost a genre unto themselves. And we're going to treat them as such.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

AAA games with huge budgets can become fully cinematic experiences. And there are few (if any) in the game who can do that kind of movie-but-it’s-a-game better than Hideo Kojima. From the environment and character designs to the acting to the story, Death Stranding 2 is everything you could want from a AAA game.

— JP

Donkey Kong: Bananza

When Donkey Kong Bananza was on the way out, there were a lot of concerns about how it would run on the new Switch 2. And while I may have had a hitch or two, I can’t actually remember, because all I can think about is the fun I had collecting 1000 damn Bananas in that game, and how gorgeous DK looked while doing it.

As a lifelong defender of Donkey Kong 64, a bad game that I know too much about, it’s such a delight to see DK get a fun, silly new revamp to his personality and look alongside a massive, AAA collectathon platformer that feels like it has the entire might of Nintendo behind it. I love Mario, man. But Donkey Kong Bananza is some of the most fun I’ve had with a Nintendo game in a really, really long time.

I’m not going to say that that’s because of the money clearly put behind it. But I think the production value and general scope of a game like this in the Donkey Kong universe – especially compared to the great but smaller-scale DK games we’ve gotten in years past – really helps sell the idea that DK is back and better than ever.

— RG

Ghost of Yotei

Massive open world RPGs are a tough sell in 2025, simply because there are so many of them, each with their own massive maps and wealth of quests. Ghost of Tsushima managed to stand out in 2020 by streamlining certain elements with clever visual tricks, and telling a solid story set in a gorgeous, historically inspired world. Yotei manages the same trick, offering a fairly standard if solid revenge story, but surrounding it with a million interesting little moments set in beautiful environments.

Atsu, our protagonist, is a stubborn samurai aiming to take down the Yotei Six, outlaw samurai who killed her family. The Six make for great villains, stealing the show every time one of them is on stage. They’re a brilliant bunch of bad guys, and I savored the hunt and duel of each one like it was a fine meal. Ghost of Yotei isn’t re-inventing any wheels, but it improves on Tsushima and manages the rare feat of creating an open world worth exploring.

— CM

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

This year, one of the best AAA games wasn’t a shooter or a massive open-world title, but an immersive sim built around a licensed property that’s effectively been gathering dust for the better part of a decade. On this point alone, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is at the very least worthy of consideration. 

Where previous Indy titles focused on maybe one or two elements of this character, Machine Games’ portrayal takes every facet of Indiana Jones and turns it into a fully-fledged mechanic to exploit in the various globetrotting sandboxes you get to explore. From using disguises to sneak around undetected, to solving intricate puzzles, or just socking a dude over the head with an improvised weapon, every moment in The Great Circle feels like it could be pulled straight from one of the movies. A feat often attempted, but until now, only accomplished with a small measure of success.

— AJ

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

The year is 1403, and I’ve just been freed from the stocks in a Bohemian village. I play as Henry, fresh off his adventures from the first game, now a lord’s son and hero in his own right. Unfortunately, none of the accolades I earned from the first game carry over, and Henry must rebuild his strength, become a proper knight, and take the fight to the invading King Sigismund.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a massive medieval immersive sim that reacts astoundingly well to player choice. Whereas, say, in Skyrim, you can steal as much as you like once you take the prudent step of putting a bucket in your target's head, Deliverance is a much more demanding world. Get caught in too many crimes and you can end up branded or even hanged. A quest to search a guy’s house for a lute can turn into a merry manhunt across the countryside. You can have so much fun messing around in the countryside you might even forget about the main quest.

— CM