2025 - Games, Books, Film, TV Favorites

This is me trying something a bit newer. I played games, read books, and watched things this year - why not share what I enjoyed. Whether for posterity, future me, or you end up finding something enjoyable, here are some of the things I enjoyed this year in no particular order.

Games

Blue Prince

When I first encountered Blue Prince, it was a steam next feast. One of the youtubers I liked did a video of the demo and 5 minutes in I stopped the video knowing I wanted to play it now. Blue Prince is a puzzle game where the first conseit is you have been bequethed a mansion by your great uncle. He challenges you to receive inheritance you have to go through the mansion (a blank 9x5 grid that you fill in with rooms) to find the elusive room 46 (there are only 45 spots for rooms!!!!) This game had me looking to everything to find a puzzle, it was endlessly rewarding. But my favorite theme of the game was knowing when you are done digging. Puzzles will go on forever if you keep digging, knowing when to come up for air is the most important thing.

Kirby Air Riders

As a kid I played kirby air ride with my sisters. We would set city trial to max time and the three of us would explore in hopes of getting dragoon, a legendary air ride machine. I loved kirby air ride so much and was so excited when I heard there was a sequel coming out. Kirby Air Riders is Air Ride but more in the best way possible. More race tracks, more racers, more frantic, more fun. I've played this game so so so much this year and see myself playing more in the future. I look forward at the chance to playing this with my sibilngs, reliving our glory days or getting the chance to play competitively with my kids.

Proverbs

This was such a great chill out game. I could go a bit mindless in just clicking the number and figuring out the puzzles while building up to a bigger design. Its like nonograms but a bit more accessible. Its started my enjoyment of this developer and I'll now play pretty much anything they put out.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Hollow knight was never one of my favorite games but boy howdy do I like exploring and silksong has that in droves. Its so hand crafted and lovingly made that its hard not to fall in love with this game.

Donkey Kong Bananza

Oh Banana!

Books

Play Nice by Jason Schreier

Growing up Blizzard games were so core to my growth World of Warcraft and Warcraft III specifically. It was so intersting to see the behind the scenes of how these games were made. Games as business is something I'm always up for reading and find so rewarding to learn about.

Palestine by Joe Sacco

With the unrest in Gaza I wanted to read something to try empathizing with the situation. Joe Sacco wrote this after the first Intifada but before the second (2001). What amazes me is the history repeating itself with no end in sight. We are all human, nobody should be robbed of their humanity.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

If a book sticking with you is the measure of greatness, this one has stuck with me a while. While the bee sting itself feels inconsiquential - I loved learning about this family, experiencing each of their writing styles, and the slow realization that nobody has it together and they are all trying in their own way. But also, guns help literally nothing.

The Ultimates by Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri

With all that has been going on in the US this past year, The Ultimates reminded me that while we always want a superhero to come save us - we are the superheroes if we choose to be. Set in a world where an evil reed richards (the maker) got rid of all the heroes, tony stark's father learns the truth and gives his son two years without the maker to try and set things right. Is your destiny set by you or something else? In the face of overwhelming oppression what is the point of rising up? What can you do if the deck is stacked against you? Be yourself, Create community, Care for one another, Call things out.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Man, this book hit me so much. Everyone in the world gets a box on their door step with a string showing them the length of their life. What happens next is a great example of people dividing then coming back together. Your life is yours, regardless of how long you have - its up to you to choose what you do with it. The ending had me crying out of sadness and joy.

Film

Superman

Superman leads with hope - they always have. People are so drawn to what if he went bad, what if he ruled with a fist? But the most incredible thing is that Superman loves humanity and leads with hope. Its so hard to not give in to the negativity and to be optimistic but thats what this film left me with. Take that in contrast to Thunderbolts*. While thunderbolts was pure misery, depression, and bleakness this was the optimism and light that the world needs so much of right now.

The Naked Gun

I can never thing about the black eyed peas without thinking about this film now. So funny, highly recommended.

TV

Slow Horses

Shaina and I started Slow Horses this year and watched all of it pretty fast. Its a great program - funny, sharp, witty, action packed. We always love how the writers need to establish how disgusting Gary Oldman is in every episode. An underdog story at its finest - I've been considering reading the books but dont want to give anything away.

The Rehearsal

While I liked the first season, I loved the second. Having airline safety as the throughline was so unexpected but each episode was such a delight. Nathan Fielder is in a class of his own and I need more content like this. The end reveal was incredible but my favorite episodes had to be the episode about paramount+ with his jacket brand and the episode about sully.