My Favorite Things of 2025

Took me way too long to get around to finishing this. Honestly, it’s still a WIP, but I figured if I actually post it here I’ll feel even more compelled to polish it up.

Like last year, I felt inclined to write about some of my favorite games from 2025 that I played. However… with a couple weeks off of work, I made the decision to start playing Baldur’s Gate 3, which has proceeded to suck up much of my free time, including the time I was going to spend writing up this post before the new year. I have no regrets — the game is brilliant so far and I will probably have a lot to say about it in my ‘Favorite things of 2026’ this next year, but I played a number of games this year that are also deserving of praise.

February Update — Work has been a bit hectic so my best of 2025 is now (hopefully) finally up in February of 2026…

Camping

I LOVED camping growing up, but it had been almost a decade since I had gone camping. I was bit by the camping bug again this last year, and I'm so glad.

Film Photography

Grabbing a cheap reusable disposable style camera was a lot of fun. I finally got my Canon AE-1 fixed up, but after messing up a roll of potentially good exposures I'm still solidly on the side of digital, though I think I'll be taking some film photos here and there when I'm so inclined:

Birding

I wrote last year about my appreciation for the Cornell Bird Lab's app Merlin (an app that I still use regularly and highly recommend), and 2025 was the year I graduated into a full-blown birder.

Bucc-ee's

Reading

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Battlefield 6

Finally, a return to form for one of the GOAT multiplayer shooter franchises. What’s been added compared to BF4 is small but significant. The ability for all classes to revive downed squadmates stands out to me the most, encouraging greater team play while also creating incredibly cool-feeling moments when you just barely pull someone to safety as bullets whizz by. Medics still have their place (I could wax poetic about the joy of throwing smoke grenades to revive downed teammates out of cover), but the squad-limited revive is a fantastic change that builds on the compelling decision making Battlefield requires.

There are moments in matches of BF6 that I can still remember months later: being pinned down behind a concrete barrier while laying siege to a nearby office building, dragging a teammate to safety as tank shells explode nearby… The sound design is expectedly industry leading. Jets scream overhead, bullets whizz by, and shell casings bounce off the ground.

Even when CoD is at it’s best, the praise I have for it is like the praise I’d heap on a particularly flavorful bag of Doritos: both are excellent at short-circuiting pleasure centers in your brain in ways god never intended, but both fundamentally lack substance. While not a deep simulation, the gameplay Battlefield 6 respects it’s audience enough to demand some strategic thinking beyond “pull trigger, kill enemy”

It’s also so refreshing to play a shooter that doesn’t feel like a key tenant of it’s design is convincing you to buy a Beavis and Butthead skin. As an adult with a job, Black Ops 6 tacking an extra unskippable minute onto the end of every match for a ‘final kill of the game’ clip and dancing player avatars was grating from Day 1.

Monster Hunter Wilds

I finally got into a Monster Hunter game. While long-time fans of the series seem to have found this latest entry somewhat underwhelming, the solid reviews at launch forced to take the plunge, and this time the loop clicked for me.

As a recovering Destiny 2 addict, the loop of playing the game, to get better gear, to keep playing the game (but slightly harder this time), to get better gear, etc., is very engaging! Luckily, Wilds doesn’t settle for just a satisfying gear (and/or fashion…) treadmill, with each weapon having it’s own feel and rhythm. I settled primarily on the bow and arrow and the insect glaive, which both have very mobile playstyles.

Hollow Knight Silksong

Silksong is simultaneously one of the most rewarding and frustrating games I’ve ever played. It’s a game that fails to learn lessons it’s very inspirations learned years ago. Long runbacks plague some of the most difficult boss fights, padding gameplay with pointless repetition that almost drove me away.

I managed to stick with it though, and I’m glad I did. It’s a thoroughly game-y game, offering a detailed and intricate world that was (mostly) a joy to traverse, in many ways surpassing it’s predecessor. The music and art direction are phenomenal, and while admittedly I have yet to do the work to get to the final act of the game, the story and atmosphere are similarly excellent.

Lumines Arise

Not quite as transcendent as Tetris Effect, but a very fun time.

Forza Horizon 5

Now available on PS5 (AKA, now available on my TV), I now totally understand why people rave about this game. The driving model is tuned near perfectly, with just the right level of simulation balanced with some arcade-y concessions. The feeling of your rear tires losing grip as you drift around a corner on a rally track is a new high for racing games.

Rather than play around with the many supercars in the game, I’ve opted to converting every single older Japanese sedan in the game into a rally vehicle, with very enjoyable results. While Forza Horizon 5 does force you to make your own fun, the driving model is just so damn good that wandering aimlessly around the map at high speeds was enough to keep me entertained for hours.

Two Point Museum

I have incredibly fond memories of playing the original Zoo Tycoon back when I was a kid, and it feels like I’ve been searching for an adequate follow-up most of my life. While Planet Zoo is a commendable spiritual successor, I’ve found the complexity and depth of it’s simulation overwhelming each time I’ve spent time in it. Two Point Museum is the first tycoon game I’ve seriously played in ages, with more immediately understandable but no less engaging management mechanics. While a lot of tycoon and management games have an immense level of customization and cosmetic options, the more limited palette and options of Two Point Museum is to its benefit, in my opinion, as I’m never faced with analysis paralysis.

Mario Kart World

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still an all-timer in multiplayer racing games, but the new maps, improved visuals, and slightly different driving model of World are a breath of fresh air. Like it’s predecessor, I’ll be playing this for years to come, and anything that shakes up the formula (and notably, looks much better on a 4K OLED) is much appreciated. You also get to drive around as a Bee, which is fun.

Forza Horizon 5 spoiled me when it comes to single player/open world racing, but when some friends are over, a couple rounds of knockout tour in Mario Kart World has been a big hit this year.

Nuclear Throne in more than 30 FPS

Even with a 30 FPS cap, Nuclear Throne always had far more satisfying action than any of it’s peers. Thankfully, for it’s 10 year anniversary, jwaaaaaap gave Nuclear Throne the first update in years, including raising the framerate cap to 120 FPS. This game still rules, especially now that the one major complaint I had for it has now been alleviated.

World of Warcraft: The War Within & Legion Remix

It was on my list last year, and though I took a bit of a hiatus after the new year, WOW still managed to make it’s way back. Legion Remix, a super fast paced event revisiting a past expansion while leveling overpowered characters, has been super fun, and I’ve been working my way through the delvers journey achievements ahead of Midnight’s launch in February, something I’m very much looking forward to at the moment.

WOW’s combat is still excellent, and taking the time to level a Shaman and Demon Hunter through the remix event has been a fun change from my Guardian Druid (a spec I’m still very devoted to, bear claws go rawrrr and all that)

Even if I get a bit burnt out before the launch, I have no doubt I’ll be itching to return later on in the year.

Deltarune

Made it's way onto the very short list of games that have genuinely made me laugh out loud.

Honorable Mentions

Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate

Monster Hunter Wilds clicked with me so much that I ended up buying a copy of the old 3DS games on EBay and giving them a try. While there’s substantially more busywork compared to Wilds, it’s enjoyable busywork. While other games eventually drew me away, I could see in my mind’s eye just how much of a time sink this would’ve been if it had clicked for me when I was back in high school.

Fire Emblem: Awakening

After pulling out my 3DS to play the old 3DS Monster Hunter games, I felt inspired top give Fire Emblem: Awakening a shot, probably almost a decade since I put it down after a couple hours and forgot about it. Like with MH4U, I’m shocked that I wasn’t immediately sucked into it back in high school. Leveling up and speccing out each character is incredibly engaging, and perhaps the only disappointment I had was the lack of a new game plus mode so I could keep building out each character into an amazing frankenstein multiclassed maniac.

Endless Legend

One of the benefits of building a new PC this year has been returning to a number of PC-first genres I’ve been missing in my gaming diet for a while, particularly strategy games. Of all the 4X games I’ve played in my life, Endless Legend is by far my favorite. While it’s sequel launched in early access this year, I have yet to put substantial time in it. Hopefully, it will end up on my 2026 list!

Blue Prince

Blue Prince is the closest a game has come to matching the feeling of unravelling an intricate puzzle box in Outer Wilds, which I’d still say is either my #1 or #2 favorite game of all time. Unfortunately, the roguelike nature of Blue Prince meant that it didn’t quite stick the landing, as I gave up out of frustration while closing in on the end. Even though I knew exactly what I had to do to get to the end of the game, relying on fickle RNG and solving repeated puzzles became obnoxious enough that it soured a lot of the experience for me. I feel like a grouch complaining about it, but there was still a stretch of about 10 or 15 hours where the game was clicking for me in the way that only games can.