2025: Looking Back at a Year of Posting About Videogames
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love AI Slop
It’s been a hell of a year, and probably one of the best in recent memory, at least from the standpoint of me playing videogames, and in particular videogames most people don’t know exist. I’ve only played a handful of games I think are outright bad this year, and I still found time to finish most of those so I can move on. That said, this year-end wrap-up won’t have a best-of list of games, or my favorite games of the year, or a ranked list, because that whole song and dance will probably take me until February, if the last few years are any indication. Instead, I wanted to do a roundup more specifically of my fond memories posting here about videogames, as a roundabout way for me to self-promote and urge new subscribers to glance at my archives. So, to start out, let’s look at my favorite Substack posts of the past year.
Best posts of 2025
RAW DOG THIS POST
Almost certainly the most off-putting article I’ve published, and the most draining, as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t get around to posting another long-form essay for most of the rest of the year. But it is also probably my favorite work so far, and one of the coolest things to recommend to others. Do it. Bring it up over a family dinner. Tell them what you’ve learned about inkjet printers and Samsung phone cameras. They might not thank you, but you know nobody else is going to warn them.
Maybe making a gargantuan schizopost the vanguard of my recommended work isn’t the best thing for discovery or reader retention, but you know what? If that kind of thing really upsets you, I genuinely don’t need your feedback on my writing.
The 33 Mystic Degrees of Playing Zelda
I consider this to be my personal ideal format for essays – longwinded, riddled with tangents, and focused on a topic of little or no interest to most people. I was so excited to get down some of these ideas, and had so much fun writing it, that the whole thing ballooned out into a much longer piece than I’d planned on, and I still feel like it’s only half done. Chances are good I’ll get the second half out this year, and that’s whether or not anyone actually wants to read it.
Brightest Flame, Darkest Souls
For a long time this was my most viewed post, and, well, of course it was, it’s about Dark Souls. Everyone loves Dark Souls. But nobody loves it the right way, the way I love it, and so I had to set out to disabuse readers of their petty, misguided excuses for thinking Dark Souls is good. I wrote some of my best passages in this, and an ending I still go back and reread occasionally. Plus I drew my own illustration for it. I could’ve asked a computer to do it for me but I did it myself. …I probably should’ve asked a computer to do it for me.
Yasuke Simulator
A perfect game, at the perfect time, encountering the perfect version of me. I decided to play through and stream this extremely mean-spirited parody of [the sociopolitical drama surrounding] Assassins Creed Shadows on the morning of April 1st, and after finishing it in a single uproarious sitting, took a shower, during which almost every single passage in my write-up emerged through the mist and had me laughing to myself and trying to take notes with wet hands. Was it all in incredibly bad taste? Aren’t all the best things in life?
Beyond Citadel
Speaking of tasteless, I don’t think I’m as proud of any article I’ve written this year as I am of myself covering Beyond Citadel with the amount of respect I think it deserves. Sure, it’s a game that features a fetishistic fixation on the gruesome dismemberment of anime women, disturbing details of which still appear sometimes when I close my eyes. And yeah, the plot is totally incomprehensible aside from the bits about incest pregnancies. But it’s far and away the most artistically and mechanically dedicated execution of those themes you could possibly imagine. It’s a truly wonderful shooter in so many ways, including ways you will have trouble admitting in mixed company, but which nonetheless whisper to you in your darkest moments.
Best Games, October Next Fest
Speaking of pride, it is with supreme satisfaction that I look back on this specific post and see so many games I don’t think I ever would have heard about if not for spending entire weeks trawling through an endless list of demos. The Next Fests are one of my favorite events of the year, I’ve only enjoyed them more since starting this page, and this most recent one felt like the culmination of all that work really paid off. If Idosra was the only game I discovered from it all, this whole year would have been worth it.
That’s right, I’m my own biggest fan, and so all of my favorite posts were from yours truly. That’s alright, though, because I’ve kindly made a separate section for the lesser posts that I still appreciated: here are my favorite Substack posts of the past year… that someone else wrote.
Ashlander - Dragon Age, Veilguard, and Highfleet
Ashlander was the first worthwhile gaming-related Substack I managed to find after I made my account, and among my first subscriptions, and a bit after that, solidified my respect by shitting on Dragon Age: The Veilguard. His teardown of the most recent game contrasts with his earlier articles on the arc of the Dragon Age series [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3], which come from a place of obvious but not uncritical fandom – the Veilguard post is not a gleeful joining on the dogpile, but a bitter recrimination of a wronged series. And even though I don’t have much personal connection to modern Bioware, let’s just say I’ve been there before, watching a beloved series crater in flames.
And while I tend to avoid in-depth writing about games I genuinely intend to play in the future, which Highfleet certainly qualifies for, I couldn’t resist a fellow Dune [and Lawrence of Arabia] fan exposing all the parallels and glowing about the depth of verisimilitude in the game’s mechanics. [Part 1, Part 2] I’ll play it, and Darkwood, someday, I promise!
Scanlines - console ranking
After months of reminiscing over each old machine in the Nintendo, Sega, and Microsoft console generations, the kid did what everyone does these days, and put everything into a tier list, which forced him to confront directly the utter collapse of the Xbox brand. Hey, that’s what you get for considering yourself ‘retro’ and not appreciating the good ol’ original Game Boy Brick. Look on the bright side, if you glance around your room, I’m sure you’ll see dozens of objects that are now Xboxes. Your phone? That’s an Xbox. PC? Also an Xbox. Wall clock? Do they even teach people how to read analog clocks anymore? Well, hopefully it’s got a wi-fi connection, so you can turn it into an Xbox. See? Xbox isn’t dead… for that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with cloud gaming even your smart refrigerator can be an Xbox.
Trip Harrison - Psycho Patrol R
While I have more personal affection for E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy, which Trip also wrote an excellent article about, I was just as entertained by his pseudo-philosophical analysis of the pseudo-philosophical trappings of the mech-combat sequel to Cruelty Squad. Which is just as ugly and insane as you’d expect from a sequel to Cruelty Squad. Now get out of the way, my orgone levels are off the charts, and I’m about to explode!
Professor David - Being and Minecraft
Speaking of pseudo-philosophical analysis of videogames… is ‘pseudo’ perhaps a bit cruel for an actual professor? Much like how I was so convinced there was more to say about Dark Souls’ enduring legacy than the obvious and superficial qualities often credited, David’s got a similar intuition about Minecraft, one very close to what I’ve had rattling around in my own head for a long time. It’s somewhat reassuring to have someone who’s obviously more well-read and erudite take the same silly stance you do – if I ever write my own overly long post about the virtues of Minecraft, I’ll probably offer David’s article as a means of cowardly deflecting criticism to someone with credentials.
Jay Rooney - Elden Ring dissertations
If you thought you were in for a lecture with the good Professor above, sit your ass down in an uncomfortable plastic chair for the sprawling digressions of Jay Rooney’s lore analysis posts about Elden Ring [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]. These are proper papers, full of side-tracks about real-world influences, reference materials, and suggestions for further reading. They’re also damn long. God, how I wish I could rattle on that long. Pull up a page, pull down the shades, and prepare to put the monotone lore droners on YouTube to shame with your dedication to scrutinizing George R. R. Martin’s best work [the best because someone else finished it for him].
Magnvs - Carpe Fulgur retrospective
If I had given myself a few more days to write this post for New Years, I’d probably just individually list every single one of Magnvs’s extremely well-researched and informative posts that I’ve read so far. His review of Hard to be a God and historiography on the legacy of Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf series in particular are highly recommendable. But the post that resonated with me most of all was his coverage of the localizer duo most responsible for introducing doujin games to the West, and to me in particular. The list of titles graced by them, even somewhat indirectly, cleaves closely to my fondest memories of that era of indie gaming, and it was a reminder of how much impact one or two people you’ve never even met can have on your experiences, your memories, and your life.
ROP - The Signal at the Edge of SOL
I have a real soft spot for virtually exploring space, and ROP’s story about finding an Easter egg in Elite Dangerous is about as earnest and touching as you can get from that genre. Highly recommend putting on headphones and following along with his read-along, complete with immersive sound effects and an enforced leisurely pace.
But that’s not all! Award season may have passed, but I have a few completely arbitrary categories to throw a trophy at myself.
Jim Mander’s 2025 Gaming Awards
BEST GAMING NEWS
METROID PRIME 4 SUCKS – I sure don’t have to buy a Switch 2 anytime soon.
BEST STEAM EVENT
STEAM FISHING FEST – where else would I have found Intergalactic Fishing, if not in a sale entirely dedicated to fishing games?
BEST MEAL EATEN
RED BEANS AND RICE – this is the ultimate in comfort food, pairs incredibly well with quick-bake biscuits, freshly baked bread, cheap wine or expensive beer, and is easy to scale up for multiple rounds of leftovers, each better than the last.
BEST POLITICS NEWS
TRUMP DESTROYS WHITE HOUSE – what’s more perfectly Boomer than moving into a place and deciding to tear half the walls out so you can make it uglier and less functional at an exorbitant cost? The man truly is the most representative President we’ve had in living memory, and if you’re really concerned about the sanctity of JFK’s fuckpalace, I suggest you reserve your indignation for the rape of what little wilderness remains on this planet. They could level the whole building and put up a Bass Pro Shops shaped like the Pantheon in its place and it’d barely warrant a finger waggling at this point. Hell, it’d probably be the most tasteful structure in DC.
BEST AI IN GAMING
COOK FOR ME GRANDPA – I bet you thought I was going to say the robot locomotion in ARC Raiders. Well, I’m over it, and my robot granddaughter said my red beans and rice were the best she’s ever had. Don’t worry, pearl-clutchers, she’s not stealing anyone’s voice acting gig, she’s just a stand-in for every human relationship I could ever have.
BEST BABE OF THE YEAR
RUDE FAIRY GIRL FROM ANGELINE ERA
The 2025 I Play Games So You Don’t Have To Poll
It’s been almost a year now, and with the massive recent influx of subscribers, I have to admit I’m a little at a loss as to what direction I should take my page. Should I completely sell out, and become a rage-baiter who gets drunk and whines into my mic about how bad the latest Disney schlock is? Should I completely sell out in a different way, and breathlessly promote the latest Ubisoft schlock in exchange for a kickback? I’ve set up a Google Forms poll to gather important feedback that will help me make this page- pfft. Sorry, I can’t pretend like I’ll take any of this into consideration. I just thought it would be fun and a good format for some jokes. By all means take this more seriously than I did and visit the poll page in this link. [email tracking is turned off btw so cheat all you want, I don’t care]
I Play Games So You Don't Have To 2025 Poll
I’ll at least explain my thinking for the first question options, as the others are pretty self-explanatory.
AAA games: the most premium, high budget games released. We want them the instant they come out! Or soon after, since you don’t get review keys! If you aren’t tipping the Metacritic scores, how can you be a real videogame journalist?
Indie games: the dankest, deepest cuts you can find trawling through the raw New Releases tabs, or lurking on forgotten modding forums. I come here to laugh at crap I’d never in a million years buy, not watch you play the same shit everyone alive’s already reviewed!
Only the classics: the older the better. I want you to pretend to like some crusty jank on Commodore 64. How about you review Quake like nobody’s ever played it [again]?
New games: only games from 2026 if possible. Hell, you know all the games you’re playing right now? Drop em! Nobody cares about things that came out in 2025! That’s so last year!
Become a genre critic: pick a single genre, probably Metroidvanias, and then just play almost exclusively those, every single one that comes out, and compare them to each other endlessly until everything you say or express relates only to games of that genre. Wait, you mean to say you haven’t been doing this already?
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2026
As the year closes, and gaming looks to be heading into a Dark Winter of Death [every publisher seeing how much development they can offload to ChatGPT] I think it’s appropriate for me to make some predictions, and offer my earnest hopes for the new year. I’ve never been wrong before, so if any of this unsettles you, please panic.
PREDICTIONS
First wholly AI-generated game by a major publisher – one of these days one of these companies is actually going to throw some money at the moronic idea endlessly tweeted about that you can have an iterative comparison algorithm generate every frame of a videogame on the fly, the emergent ephemeral experience perfectly adhering to the player’s expectations, desires, and collated advertisement attention profile. It’ll be dogshit, it’ll have trillions of AI-written articles published about it, and whoever bankrolls it will somehow laugh all the way to the bank as everyone plays it anyway.
First AI-induced game publisher bankruptcy – and it’s just as inevitable that, as untold resources are pissed away to grease up the schlock pipeline with machine code replacing human hacks, one of them will go too far, leverage too much of their actual assets, and end up eating shit with literally nothing to show for it. I pray this happens to as many major publishers as possible, actually, which will then lead into either their wholesale acquisition by the Saudi government, or the first gaming industry government bailouts, as these companies successfully entreat the administration to consider their too-big-to-fail status. If Call of Duty isn’t a franchise of dire national security interest, what is?
No news from Sandfall – Clair Obscur was a roaring success, taking the awards ceremonies by storm, and celebrating with a patch that is most notable for adding shit that should’ve been hotfixed in by June. But as much as the entire industry is on tenterhooks with anticipation of announcements like EXPEDITION 34 or SANDFALLS NEW CO-OP EXTRACTION SHOOTER, my intuition is that they’ll just be quietly working on something, or drinking away their windfall for most of 2026. We’ll maybe get a cinematic trailer, or a teaser post with nothing to glean, either in summer or right in time for next year’s Game Awards, so they can remind everyone about the weird French JRPG everyone was all crazy about and then forgot.
Slavoj Žižek Fortnite collab – the Slovenian stallion himself, available as a skin and, hell, a whole new game mode, bringing neo-Marxist philosophy to a new generation of gamers. Yes, we will have clips of Darth Vader noting Žižek’s incredible potency with the Force, Peter Griffin shooting him with a rocket launcher, and Thanos and Hatsune Miku joining him in a roundtable discussion as a unique emote. And yes, you will wake up several times this year wondering if this actually happened or you just ate too much cheese too late the night before.
GAMES I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO
Exo Rally Championship
Easily the game from this year’s Next Fests that most impressed me, and though it has no official release date, I got the impression from October’s demo that most of the real work has already been finished, and the game just needs more content and polishing, which shouldn’t really take a whole year. Come on, guys. Don’t take that long.
Super Woden: Rally Edge
Yeah, another racing game. Super Woden GP II was one of my favorite games of the year that I played it, and by far my favorite part of the game was the rally courses, so knowing there’s a sequel just a few weeks away that focuses ENTIRELY on rally races is making me giddy. Excellent demo, I cannot wait to hear more easy right~
Nioh 3
Of all the Souls knockoff crap I’ve played, Nioh is the series that did something for me that FromSoft really hasn’t. Except for Sekiro, I guess. The perfect blend of arcade character action and ARPG, AND this one’s going to be open-world? Well… that’s honestly not the best sales pitch I’ve heard, frankly, but I’m happy to give it a shot. Hopefully they don’t fuck this all up, though they certainly could.
Granser – Act 1
Fresh off making the Skautfold series one of my deep cut recommendations for last week’s Christmas post, I finally get an excuse to mention Pugware’s followup series – an ambitious JRPG trilogy which he’s been planning out for quite a while. Am I sad there won’t be more and more completely bizarre Skautfold games seemingly made for me and me alone to play? Sure. Will I buy Granser at release out of slavish loyalty? Why not.
Moonsigil Atlas
As someone who detests the format of ‘deckbuilder’ and what it’s done to modern indie development, I was suitably impressed with what I saw of Moonsigil during Next Fest, and I honestly am really looking forward to diving into the full release, with the hopes that it makes good on some of its promise. This could be a standout in more ways than one, and I’d be really happy to see that happen.
HARK THE GHOUL
A kind of gross goofy Kings Field clone, and I can’t get enough of those. I of course long for a true sequel to Lunacid, but in the meantime, I’ll gladly take this. It’s even got a kick button! What game isn’t improved by a kick button?
Klostyn
You know, honestly, looking back at this, I bet the end product will suck. But that won’t stop me from playing it and, plausibly, praising it to high hell. It just hit me in the perfect boomer-shooter weak spot, and I hope it makes it out soon enough for me to remember why the hell I wishlisted it.
Slain 2: The Beast Within
I was bitterly disappointed that the developer of Slain! and Valfaris went on to make a Valfaris shmup spinoff instead of another sicknasty pixel run-n-gun headbanging spectacle. Well, fuck yeah, that’s exactly what we’re getting now! The original Slain was one of my most memorable examples of an indie developer redemption arc, going from a terrible, clunky excuse to show off some gratuitous pixel gore animations to… a slightly less terrible game, but one that attempted to do everything it could to earnestly address negative feedback. And then the followup, Valfaris, was one of the coolest games in years. If Slain 2 can take just one more step forward from the high water mark of Valfaris, I’ll be hooting and hollering about this one for the rest of 2026.
Aggelos 2
As someone who’s played a lot of the Wonder Boy games, and quite a few Wonder Boy fangames, Wonderboy Bobi’s Aggelos still stood out as a spectacular example, and a straightforward sequel with even nicer art, even more movement tech, and that classic Dark World parallelism that all the BEST sequels roll out? That’s perfectly fine by me.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
Alright, yes, it looks exactly like AC7. Great. Good. Just give me more Ace Combat. Hopefully they let PC players play in VR this time without jumping through a million goddamn hoops. Is PSVR2 dead? Let’s pound a stake into it just to be sure before this comes out.
Alabaster Dawn
I’ve been waiting for news from Crosscode’s developers for years, and with the Alabaster Dawn demo’s release a few months ago, I finally got a taste of their followup. Again, this game technically doesn’t have a proper release date, but I have a good feeling about 2026, even if I have to swallow my pride and buy into an Early Access just to get my hands on this at last. But I’m praying it just comes out, fully formed, and I don’t have to play it one chapter at a time for once.
Well, that’s about all for me this year. I’ll be back with regular Weekend Updates, some more game write-ups as I finish them, and yes, eventually some more long essays when things settle down. But I’ll also do a little retooling of this page, sitting down to do my recommendations properly, and resting, so January might be a bit quiet. Thanks to everyone who subscribed, double thanks to all the other writers on here who wrote something I found a reason to comment on, triple thanks to everyone who replied on my posts, and most of all, thank you to the posters who were good enough to restack something I wrote, and share it with their own audience. Have a wonderful New Year.
I typed this comment on an Xbox.
Thanks for the kind words! Also, a good selection of your own - your Dark Souls one remains a banger, and I can heavily relate to the problem of people liking popular things but doing it wrong. The Citadel one is also very funny.