I’m going to use my valuable intro space to say: Amazon, if you can, please reupload the Bad Bunny concert you streamed for a single day only while I was travelling. I’d really appreciate it.
Please reupload the Bad Bunny concert “No me quiero ir de aquí: Una Más” so I can watch it. I’d really appreciate it.
Okay, time for video games.
10. Hollow Knight: Silksong
Honestly, this would probably be higher if I had played more; I only put ten hours into it, reaching (what I assume) is the end of the first act, but I’ve been really enjoying what I’ve played so far. Gonna be upfront too, I didn’t like the first Hollow Knight, and I reinstalled it before Silksong came out to give it another try, and still don’t. I think many elements of its design are unfair and frustrating for the sake of it, and this is coming from a guy who regularly enjoys Soulslike games. With Silksong, I installed a few mods that removed some of those bad elements (like the map not auto-updating), and it turned a game I’d never have touched into something I was hooked on in the short time I was playing it. I was having a blast with it now that I could focus on the core of the game without being distracted by some of the nonsensical design choices. Exploring Pharloom is a wonderful experience, with how smooth Hornet sprints across the land, and her speedier combat set is much appreciated over the previous game’s. Now that the busy fall season is over, I’m eager to dive back into Hollow Knight: Silksong.
9. The Midnight Walk
I’ve been eagerly anticipating The Midnight Walk ever since its initial reveal, and I can safely say that it was worth the wait. Possibly one of the most gorgeously realized worlds in games in years, The Midnight Walk was made in real life with clay, which was then scanned and animated digitally, creating these breathtaking sights when you first play it. You play as the Burnt One, and along with your buddy Potboy, you journey up a mountain to restore the sun to the world that’s been cast in eternal darkness. While the journey is short and sweet, the amount of worldbuilding that gets done is nothing short of impressive. By the end of the game, the world feels lived in, and each of the characters you come across is fully realized. If you want a truly unique experience from 2025, not much comes close to The Midnight Walk.
8. Öoo
I’ve never really been into gimmick puzzle platformers, where your character has a single ability, and you use that to solve a multitude of slightly different puzzles all based on that singular gimmick, but Öoo found a way. The core setup is simple: you play as this…thing, who can lay bombs that can be triggered remotely. You very quickly understand how the rest of the game is going to play, in that you’ll use those bombs to blast yourself or other bombs around the place to solve puzzles. Öoo manages to take your expectations and construct some genuinely clever “ah-ha!” moments out of them. On top of that, the game is like two hours tops, which means each zone spends the appropriate amount of time on its puzzle solution without overstaying its welcome. As someone who was really hesitant about it, Öoo really surprised me, and I can’t recommend it enough.
7. Monster Hunter Wilds
Normally, a Monster Hunter game would be higher up on a GOTY list for me, but Wilds’ performance issues on PC that still haven’t been fully resolved really hold it back for me, which is a big bummer because outside of that, this is a great follow-up to World. A lot of the new monsters are huge standouts, especially flagship monster Arkveld. It was nice to see some of the weapon changes from Rise make their way here, along with other updates to speed up some of the slightly slower bits of combat, and the single-player story content was shockingly solid. I know a lot of folk have written the game off, but I’m hoping a future expansion can overhaul the issues the base game has and elevate the entire thing.
6. Dispatch
Dispatch surprised me a lot. I had heard that it pitched itself as a comedy, a genre that I think is sorely lacking in the gaming space, and it proceeded to fully deliver on that promise. Each episode I got through just left me surprised at how funny the entire thing was, along with how well written each of the characters in its cast was. The dispatch minigame you’d play was also way more engaging than I initially gave it credit for, as it constantly had me debating who to send on what mission and loving all the team banter during it. Despite its world being pretty unoriginal, the writing is so strong that it completely dwarfs whatever minor issues the game has.
8. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Maaan, Shinobi fucking rules, dude. The art is sick, and the combat is even sicker. I’m not even gonna waste your time by writing too much; if you want to play one of the best action games of the year, then you need to play Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.
4. Battlefield 6
Battlefield 2042 is one of those games where, despite the fact that the previous titles in the series were solid, this one was so bad it shook your faith in whether the studio could bounce back from it or not. We live in a semi-decent timeline, thankfully, because Battlefield 6 was such a refreshing return to form, and a welcome return to modern combat since 2013’s BF4. Classes were brought back and tweaked with some actual interesting changes (unlike the pseudo-hero system 2042 had), the levels are just as fun to play in as they are to destroy, and I don’t think a shooter has given me this many moment-to-moment, effortlessly cinematic moments as this game has in years.
3. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
This was one of those games where the hype for it was so strong, I wanted to wait a few months for it to simmer down before trying it out, because surely it can’t be that good, right? An hour or so into the game, after finishing the prologue, I was sitting there thinking, “damn, that hype might’ve been justified”. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is just a phenomenal experience from start to finish, from the thrilling combat encounters, the soundtrack that’s begging for an orchestra tour, and the cast of characters that you start to quickly fall in love with over the course of the game.
2. Silent Hill f
Silent Hill f is a game that really surprised me when I played it. I expected it to be good; the reception to it at release told me that much, but within the first few hours, I got one of the most gorgeously realized horror games I’ve played in a minute. Hinako’s journey as she explores her transformed town and the mysterious dark realm had me hooked from the jump as the game expertly commented on topics like societal expectations of women, patriarchal households, keeping to tradition vs modernizing, and more. Every aspect of the game, from the creature design to the puzzles, touched on these topics in some way, and piecing Hinako’s story together was such a satisfying experience as revelations came to light throughout the game.
1. Donkey Kong Bonanza
YOU CAN PLAY AS DONKEY KONG AND SMASH ANYTHING IN SIGHT WHILE COLLECTING BANANAS AND THERE’S A DEDICATED CHEST THUMP BUTTON. LIFE DOESN’T GET BETTER THAN THIS.
