Smell ya later, 2025

Don't let the door hit you on the way out

2025 in Movies

As expected, my first full year raising my little gremlin cut into my movie-watching time in a big way. Here are some stats for my year in summary:

Films watched: 63, 56 of which were new watches for me.

Hours spent watching: 110.5

Most watched actor: (4 way tie, 3 watches each) Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Ivy Wolk

Most watched director: (3 way tie, 2 each) Osgood Perkins, Chris Sanders, Steven Soderbergh

Favorite Films of the year (in alphabetical order)

2025 in Books

My reading goal for 2025 was to finish 26 books either read or listened, but to have at least 12 of them be eyeball-reading books. I finished out the year with 32 books read in total, with 19 of them meeting my eyeball goal.

Some of my highlights:

2025 in video games

I didn’t get a chance to play a lot of video games this past year, but when I did I had prolonged bouts of being addicted to them until I burnt myself out. The top three offenders here are:

BALL x PIT - a fun rogue-lite Breakout-like with base-building elements that has a very addicting gameplay loop that makes it very easy to play for hours on end.

Blue Prince - probably my favorite of the year, a really chill puzzle rogue-lite with more secrets and hidden objectives that made me feel like a genius when I figured something out on my own. The last time I felt like this was with 2016’s The Witness.

Hades II - I maybe like this more than its predecessor because it’s the same loop but with SO MUCH MORE.

Special shout out to the Switch 2 that was definitely my console of choice this year, but kind of lacked first party games right out of the gate. Donkey Kong Bananza was a minor distraction for a while, but I never actually finished it. I’m still waiting to hear more about The Duskbloods.

2025 in tabletop games

This past year marked the first for me to try a 10 x 10 challenge. The year started out strong, but in the end I failed to follow-through on both choosing 10 games, or finishing more than two of them.

Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West - we played through 10 (or maybe 11?) games of this 12-game campaign with my wife and nephew throughout the year. Although we didn’t finish the last game and tally up total scores, I’m pretty sure we unlocked everything there was to see. Perhaps I’ll do a full retrospective on the game once we finally close out the campaign.

The Castles of Burgundy - this is an oldie but a goodie that popped back up on my radar when I received the Special Edition early in the year. This was always one of my favorite games by one of my favorite designers, but the special edition really takes things to another level, turning it from just a game into a substantial investment into the hobby.

SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - one of my new games for the year and while it’s a bit heavier than I’ve played lately, it was actually easier to pick up and teach. We played it for a few weeks back to back in my game group and it really clicked with me each time.

Shackleton Base - A very late addition to the collection, this one feels like the big brother to SETI and does the modular gameplay even better. I’ve only had one play under my belt so far, but this might be something I try to throw onto the 10 x 10 for the year.

Bomb Busters - this was a Christmas gift and I ended up playing with my wife and friends this past week for 6 games in a single session. I combines the co-op hidden information and communication of a game like Hanabi but fleshes it out with a campaign-like story and unlockables. I can’t wait to see what’s in these secret boxes…

2025 in new music