2025 Gaming Road Trip

Below I’ll be going through a rough journey or road trip of noteworthy gaming titles I completed or completed up to where I’m OK with putting them down for now. Not everything was released this year, a few picks were in prior years as I slowly bring things out of the backlog. Nothing too exciting or any substantial analysis. This is more of a recap for myself and something I’ll use to plan out and make decisions in the coming year. 

December 2024 

The big one is up first, this is the title that gave me the jump-start into trying to rekindle this little act of mine of sharing my feelings about media and games I experience. 1000xResist is the debut title from Sunset Visitor that was released in May of 2024 and slowly but steadily grew as a title worth acclaim and attention. I had originally started chapter one in bed one night on the Steam Deck roughly July of the same year but didn’t quite get invested in that short time.I revisited the title in December after I saw it mentioned in a few podcasts and awards shows. 

Upon the second attempt and the completion of the first of its ten chapters it began to sink its hooks into me. By the second night and chapter I was completely aboard the ride, even if I had no way of knowing what twists and the depth of the subject matter I was in for. This title is one where I’ve often said “the only thing I can say about 1000xResist is I am not qualified enough to talk about 1000xResist.” It boasts such impactful, deep, and resonating topics and subjects I feel any attempt to convey or sum it up would fall immeasurably short. It’s so many things, but if I had to give it a scattering of simple descriptors they would be: deep, tragic, motivating, relatable, heartbreaking, risky, hilarious, and many many more but if I had to choose just one word I would have to go with “important”. This is a very important title that shouldn’t ever be forgotten. 

Coming off 1000xResist we have Pacific Drive, a delightfully fresh take on the survival craft horror genre with a fun mobile twist. Mobile as in your whole world revolves around a beat up supernatural station wagon that will be your guide, your armor, and your friend as you make your way through many locations of varying anomalies and supernatural events. I’ve spoken a bit about this one previously in my Processing Games piece so go read that for some more insight. Great game. 

VA-11 Hall-A closed out our December in a delightful twist of coincidence. The game takes place during the last few weeks of December so the cold snowy dystopian city setting was especially fitting. I’m not the most experienced in Visual Novel style games, but the aesthetic and music pulled me right in with this one. Serving drinks and changing lives or so the motto of the game is, the various colorful patrons and fellow employees that filled out the cast of this game were incredibly engaging despite being very linear. Definitely something I’ll visit every few years, probably around the new year again. 

January – February 2025

Interestingly, the next two games I completed were also VN, or at least VN adjacent games. Until Then and Afterlove EP were next on my list, which is absolutely the order I would rank them. Until Then was a very pleasant experience that I still think about at least once a week. Beautiful pixel graphics, fantastic soundtrack, intriguing and deceptively complex story that crushed me emotionally while also making me laugh regularly. I have nothing really positive to say about Afterlove EP, I was happy to complete it and put it away. I understand it’s development was complicated and devoted fans are happy to get the last work of the creator, but I did not connect with this in any substantial way. 

March 

March was a pretty slow month full of ramp ups in the personal job eating into my free time and only had two real noteworthy titles completed. First being the Watcher DLC for Rain World. I adored my time in Rain World originally and played and completed most of the different campaigns for it. I didn’t take to the Watcher very much, the random nature of navigation was just a layer of difficulty and RNG I was not in the  mood for. This will remain unfinished for the foreseeable future. 

I ended March with Wanderstop, a very poignant entry from Davey Wreden, the mind behind The Stanley Parable and, more importantly for me, The Beginner’s Guide. Like previous work, Wreden’s Wanderstop sways into more of a commentary on games rather than being a traditional gaming experience. It puts a lens on the creative process, burnout, and being OK with letting things go and questions unanswered. I really enjoyed this one and am still very much sold on whatever this guy cooks up next. 

April

Welcome to Blue Prince month. This puzzle game would go on to consume my every thought for basically the whole month. I’m no stranger to puzzle games, earliest memories of gaming being Myst, Team Xtreme: Operation Weather Disaster (yes I’m old), even more modern titles like Return of the Obra Dinn and Outer Wilds are among my favorite games of all time. As a debut title Blue Prince will easily stand among the greatest of them for as long as I can see. It’s a very unique take on the genre and it has a level of depth that I don’t think anyone saw coming. People are STILL debating if there are more mysteries to be solved. What makes this title stand out for me though, is the narrative encompassing the whole experience. There is a reason things are shrouded in mystery and require meticulous notes and patience to solve. Truly a special experience and one I recommend heavily. 

Alright I lied, April may have had one other small “indie” title release. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 needs very little input from me. The praise and accolades it’s been showered with are many and I have no issue with the feedback levied toward it.  It’s going to be in my top 10 of all time easily, it is an execution of the turn based formula that really feels like it maintains its origins and inspirations while still innovating concepts and mechanics for a more modern unfamiliar audience. Even without these aspects the narrative is enough for this to stand out on its own. Its use of the gaming medium only helps to reinforce the narrative. It’s a really great experience that I’m going to be recommending for years. 

May

May opened with a combo of Receiver 1 and 2. A Slenderman collect-8-pages-like game with the gimmick of very granular firearm mechanics and complicated controls. Receiver 2 was surprisingly deep in a narrative sense, using its simple creepy backdrop to tell a very compelling story that connected to real world firearm ownership and mental health. It’s a game I think I want to talk about more deeply in the future so look forward to that…probably. May ended with Elden Ring: Nightreign, a fun multiplayer take on Elden Ring map, characters and assets that almost took the sting off my issues with Elden Ring and it’s DLC

June

Lies of P had their long awaited DLC released, and I absolutely ate it up. Admittedly I was very nervous about how this would go. At the announcement it gave me the feeling it was going to simply be a cut content and asset reuse with not much as far as expanding on the narrative and lore of the base game. I’m incredibly happy to report I was wrong. The story contained within the DLC was compelling and connected to the base game in a very impactful way. This is easily Old Hunters level when it comes to how much it connects and builds on the base game. What a great time. 

July – August

The end of the summer is usually a dead time for me. Living in the desert, I don’t like to stay at my PC much. However at the end of the month Dead Take released, and it’s one of those obscure unorthodox titles I would say was made just for me. Very FMV heavy and with a lot of talent I adore it drew me in completely even if it was only an evening’s worth of playtime. Slightly off topic but I swear this game was made solely on networking that happened at the 2024 Game Awards given seemingly everyone who is featured in the game was in attendance. Either way, very excited to see what Abubakar Salim cooks up next 

August concluded with me finally completing Hollow Knight. A title that I would associate many descriptive words and feedback for but if I had to condense it down the one thing I’d say was it was a roller coaster. I’ve spoken enough about it in a previous piece so go read that to know what I mean. 

September

Anime WW1 time, Valkyria Chronicles had been on my list for a very, very long time. Their use of an anime aesthetic and style blended with WW1/WW2 tech and light magic was appealing for many years. Going through the story however really brought me down the more I spent time with it. The magic aspects were way more forefront than I anticipated and some narrative choices really brought me out of the experience. That and some story missions that felt really punishing and required playing it once to see how enemy appearances happened then coming back another time to actually do it really soured my experience with it. 

Sword of the Sea ended the month. Like many I’ve been a huge fan of these Journey-like experiences where a character wanders a broken world with beautiful music accompanying the adventure. Shout-out Austin Wintory, you always kill an OST and I’ll be in the front of the line for whatever is next. It doesn’t hit the highs or emotional engagement of previous titles but still a very worthwhile journey throughout. 

October – November 

Well October was full of replays and co-op forays into things like Anno 1800 so nothing too crazy to expand on there. Pacific Drive however, released a DLC that was very intriguing at first but I soon forgot to keep playing it. So I suppose me revisiting my list while writing this out might help me dive back in. Or we’ll see it on the list next year. Still adore the game to pieces even with less than exciting DLC. 

December

This is it! The end of the year. I’m finishing this up right after watching the 2025 Game Awards with my close friends, a yearly tradition. It’s a good indicator and a reset point for my gaming year so it’s nice to end this recap on the same day. 

I ended out this year with some of the best games of the year. Yes I’m ignoring recency bias, shut up. Dispatch was the new hotness release from former Telltale devs that took my feed by storm. I adored this little journey into a superhero dominated world even if I’m incredibly fatigued by most superhero media. 

By far the highlight of the month and maybe the whole season was finally jumping into The Midnight Walk. A light horror title made up of claymation and stop motion animation. It comes in a normal version as well as VR, I opted for VR and I’m incredibly glad I did. It was an incredibly moving experience that I feel was elevated by being in VR. The world is rich, tragic, beautiful, haunting, inspiring, and so many other things. It’s an experience I anticipate I’ll carry with me for a long time. 

And that’s it! A giant body of text I’m sure nobody but me will read. Hey Phil reading this in prep for next year. I hope you took screenshots throughout the year because this looks very boring without something to break it all up. Pretty decent year and a lot more completed titles than I anticipated. Granted many were actually new releases rather than backlog, still made a decent dent. 

Oh well, always be learning I guess. 

Not every title listed below was played until credits, some don’t even have them. These are simply items I’ve completed to my personal satisfaction and don’t feel compelled to continue in any substantial or noteworthy way. 

Happy 2025 everyone. Here’s to an incredible 2026. Stay safe out there.