Game Of Troy's Year 2025
It’s been a pretty busy year for me, what with the filming and release of Marble Hornets: Rosswood as well as the release of the final issue of the Marble Hornets Comic Series, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have time to play video games! I may have had a little LESS time compared to last year, but hey…uh…
Just like last time, I’ll have my top 5 games in reverse order here (for SUSPENSE), along with a link to buy it on Steam if you’re so inclined. Again, I don’t get paid anything for that. I’m just a swell guy.
#5 - The Roottrees Are Dead
I love a game that makes me feel smart, and I love games that have an old internet. The Roottrees Are Dead has both! On the list it goes!
In it, you are assigned to figuring out the family tree of a wealthy family after a good chunk of them are killed in a plane crash. Not super upbeat, I know, but the game barely dwells on it before throwing you head first into the mystery of the multiple familial relationships, and of course the SCANDALS. I know it’s hard to believe, but some of these super wealthy folks were bad people!
While it doesn’t have a full on fake internet the way that something like Hypnospace Outlaw did, it’s still fun to interact with the not-google search engine with all the keywords and names you dig up during your investigation. Everything you discover then goes on a big conspiracy theorist style corkboard complete with yarn connecting everything. It’s a ton of fun to slowly fill in all the blanks. While the later parts of the game expect a little too much from you, I still enjoyed it from beginning to end.
#4 - Dispatch
Remember Telltale Games? I miss them. They definitely had some low points, but The Walking Dead’s first season and Tales From The Borderlands easily eclipsed it. Seriously, I don’t care one bit for Borderlands, but Tales was something special.
Dispatch is the first game from some ex-Telltale folks and boy does it ever show. You play as a forced-to-retire superhero that takes a desk job as a kind of superhero dispatcher in charge of a team of barely useful ex-villians. Admittedly, that’s pretty well worn ground by this point. Oh, bad guys trying to be good? Superheroes that swear? Shocking! But despite all of that, I was still enraptured by Dispatch’s story. There’s some very Telltale style hard decisions to make sprinkled in as well, though not quite as constantly as the old Telltale games proper had. It strikes a good balance though, with each dialogue choice and action feeling weighty whenever it happens.
Not to harp too much on the comparisons, but what really places Dispatch above even the best Talltale had to offer is its production values. The animation is so much smoother and way less awkward than the samey, stiff Telltale style we all grew accustomed to back then. Of course those were older games, but it’s still striking to see Dispatch after seeing the previous stuff.
Strangely, the only part of Dispatch that I didn’t particularly care for was the actual “game” part of it where you have to, uh, dispatch the heroes around the city to do all kinds of menial tasks. It’s not outright bad or anything, it just didn’t engage me as much as the story parts did. Most of the time I would shrug my way through it, going as quickly as I could to get past it so I could move on to the next story beat. I know some people loved this aspect of the game, but it kinda felt like busy work to me. But hey, the rest of it is well worth a look!
#3 - Hades 2
I LOVED the first Hades game. If I was doing these lists back in 2020, it would surely be at the top. It consumed my thoughts until I finally finished it. The sequel did much the same thing.
If you played Hades 1, then Hades 2 will feel very familiar. Instead of trying to escape from the underworld, this time you’re stuck between it and Mount Olympus, and now you can either go down to save Hades or up to save the other gods. In practice, that means there are two routes you can continuously bang your head against until you finish, instead of the one single route from the first game. And to finish Hades 2, you have to beat both routes multiple times. Quite a task.
There’s a ton of stuff going on back at your home base this time around too. Building relationships with other characters, tending a garden, combining materials, upgrading animals (?!), it’s a lot to keep track of. Luckily none of it feels like a chore thanks to the interesting characters and real progression you can make by doing all of these side things.
It didn’t quite give me the same high as Hades 1, but I was still determined to finish it over the two-ish weeks it took me to do so. If you liked the first game, this one is a no brainer.
#2 - Clair Obscur Expedition 33
I have a confession to make. I am bad at RPGs. My brain just does not work when it comes to thinking strategically and figuring out character builds and synergies and all that stuff. I’m the kind of guy that just uses the Pokemon that look cool. Going any deeper than that is beyond me. Most RPGs I try these days I am likely to bounce right off of. I wish I didn’t, but I do.
So keeping that in mind, I can confidently say that I adored Clair Obscur Expedition 33. Yes I put it on easy mode almost immediately. Yes I rarely if ever swapped out abilities. Yes I used the same sequence of attacks for most of the battles. But I didn’t care because the game’s story was so damn good. I HAD to know what happened next. It’s the videogame equivalent of a page turner. One moment in particular had me say “holy shit” out loud to no one but myself. If you’ve played it, you know the part I’m talking about.
I remember Joseph DM’d me on Discord saying that I really need to play it, and that it made him reconsider his rule about not caring about spoilers to things he hasn’t finished yet. That is not something I ever thought I’d hear him say. “You can tell me what happens, I don’t care” might as well be his middle name. So him saying otherwise was more than enough to get me to give it a shot. It hooked me more or less instantly.
I know “go in blind” is a cliche at this point, but beyond the initial setup (kill big painter lady!), you really don’t need to look into anything else before trying this one. The story is really that engaging. Who cares if you’re bad at RPGs.
#1 - RetroAchievements. All of it.
Okay. Yes. This is technically not a game. But it would absolutely not feel right to not make it my number one for this year. And it’s my list, so….deal with it, I guess.
I’m only a little ashamed to admit that there were a few instances when Marble Hornets Rosswood was almost thrown behind schedule because I was too distracted with obsessively chasing these achievements. Back in the Xbox 360 days I was just as bad about getting as many achievement points as I could, so I was doomed from the start here. It’s been around for well over a decade at this point, and I was aware of it but never got on it until this year. That might be for the best because who knows what it would’ve distracted me from back then.
If you’re like me and love using emulators - for games you legally own already, of course - using RA is a fantastic way to breathe new life into older games, up through the Gamecube and PS2 (they are saying Wii support is coming in 2026 too). It’s made me fall in love all over again with many of my favorites (mastering Warioware was a joy), showed me parts of them I never knew about (how did I make it this long without ever seeing the alternate endings to Chrono Trigger?), and maybe most importantly, exposed me to unlicensed nonsensical barely-games that have to be seen to be believed. You may be aware of Crazy Bus, but what about Windows 98 on the NES? It doesn’t do anything! But the mouse moves! And of course, you can’t forget the wonderful homebrew section. Naturally, Steamed Hams is represented.
It does take a small amount of technical know-how to get everything set up and in sync with the RA service, but trust me, it’s worth it. And there’s plenty of help if you need it. Feel free to follow me once you’re in!
It's not on Steam, go to RetroAchievements.org
The honorably mentioned:
PowerWash Simulator 2 (Steam)
Peak (Steam)
Easy Delivery Co. (Steam)
Arc Raiders (would probably be on the top 5 list if it wasn’t for the godawful AI voice acting it has for no discernible reason) (Steam)
Games I wish I played but didn’t have time:
Silent Hill f (Steam)
Hollow Knight: Silksong (Steam)
Megabonk (Steam)