This Month in Videogame Vlogging, This Week in Videogame Blogging

This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2025

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Welcome back, readers. We have once again made it in our elliptical journey around the Sun. The Gregorian calendar changes tomorrow, bringing with it the promise of new beginnings and the allure of fresh possibilities. Anything is liable to happen in 2026; but before we can set our sights on the coming future, we first have to see the past off into the placid lake of our collective memory. (We don’t know where this tortured metaphor is going either.) What we do know is that this year we really had our work cut out for us. Over 820 articles made it into the weekly roundups that Chris put together over the past 50 or so weeks.

In addition to that, we collected another 120 articles from  over the two short weeks we held the submission window open. Nearly a thousand discrete pieces of writing, from over 400 authors, originating from nearly 250 outlets, blogs, academic journals and newsletters. We haven’t crunched all the numbers going back 16 years but we’re fairly confident that 2025 has given us the biggest selection pool ever for a TYIVGB post. And while quantity does not necessarily correlate with quality, it has been incredibly heartening to read so many incredible pieces of writing, week after week after week after week. Games media is in as precarious a position as the profession has ever been, and it’s going to take all hands on deck to help it survive what may still be coming, rebuild, and get back to a state where it can thrive. But we have never been less worried that good writing about games will disappear. Let’s dive in.

The State of the Discourse

Discourse: it’s a word we’ve learned to run away from when it’s employed on social media, the harbinger of wasted afternoons, raised blood pressure and tension headaches. But the conversations we’re having now can and do help shape the cultural space we occupy tomorrow. Here were some of the most talked-about subjects in 2025.

100% Certified Human-made

Both games media and the video game industry are caught in the web of the broader tech scene’s obsession with AI. The following articles are concerned with the human element of game development.

You Can’t Report on Hunger While Taking Bread Off the Table | Date ‘Em Ups

After Eurogamer awarded Arc Raiders a low score for their use of AI voice lines and incurred the wrath of one Tim Sweeney, Thomas James tied the moment back into the very extant labor issue AI poses to people in all aspects of the industry, including translation and localization. This is something Brian Merchant wrote about earlier in the year as well, and indeed there have been several labor and AI stories to come out where the vibes, if not the material conditions, have been downright horrendous. Take this reported piece from Luke Plunkett at Aftermath for example (as well as his one on the labor market in games more broadly). Or this post from Robin Bea at Inverse about the growing gap between companies adopting AI and their employees liking or even just tolerating it.

Other writers, like Tommy Thompson at AI and Games and Edwin Evans-Thirlwell at Rock Paper Shotgun, wrote about the stakes this particular incident unveil, with Evans-Thirlwell in particular saying, “it’s important to reiterate that the biggest budget generative AI tools are a mechanism of class war.” This point is vital to remember since, as Emma Kostopolus at Unwinnable pointed out, “[T]he crux of all of this is that the robot is smarter than us – it can solve problems faster than we can and handle complex information in ways we simply cannot. The reality of AI is something quite different – the robot isn’t smarter.”

‘Our Industry Has Been Strip-Mined:’ Video Game Workers Protest at The Game Awards | The Guardian

Alyssa Mercante, writing for The Guardian, spoke to members of UVW-CWA at a protest vigil in front of the Peacock Theatre during The Game Awards to see why the union was holding a mirror up to the industry bigwigs in attendance that night. (Spoilers: it’s AI, the over 40,000 layoffs since the start of the decade, and all of the dirty ways companies have tried to keep workers from taking their power back). In a year that saw still-significant layoffs, continued corporate consolidation and the blatant union-busting of a group of Rockstar workers, the vigil was a necessary move.

The GTA6 of Indie Games Doesn’t Exist | Aurambles

Speaking of Rockstar, Aura Triolo explains why something like a GTA, a monolithic, massive economic enterprise, couldn’t (and shouldn’t) emerge out of the indie gamedev scene. Indies and their position within games was kind of fraught this year (See also: “A Pivot To Indie Won’t Save Us“). On one hand, it really would be nice if “shorter games with worse graphics” were prioritized (Grace Benfell, Endless Mode) over the kind of high-budget, resource-heavy games that take center stage, but on the other hand, the usefulness of the “indie” label under which those smaller games might be made seems to be running out (V. Buckenham).

Not to mention, the industry is in the middle of an ongoing deprofessionalization process (Bryant Francis, Game Developer) that might be likened more to a crisis. And what even are AA games, anyway (Mayerowitz and Belzanne, HushCrasher)? Overlooking the whole discourse, Bruno Dias muses on the differences between games and the film industry they’re so often compared to. Nathalie Lawhead contends we must learn how to “sustainably fail” in order to withstand the worst impacts of a worsening industry. And Em Reed reminds us that productivity and profit shouldn’t be the goal.

Criticism About Criticism

It’s our favorite kind of criticism: criticism about itself.

One thread that wove through the discourse this year was whether or not critics should cover a game according to their experiences versus their expectations of it. At Undermatrix Junction, Roxanne B. struggles with this question mightily as her experience with Battlefield: Hardline forced her to contend with an inborn tendency to theorycraft a better game into existence. After hearing for years that Pokémon Black and White had the best, most adult story in the franchise, Jake Steinberg found nothing of the sort—just echoes of expectations and the same empty narrative world. Harper Jay MacIntyre pushes disappointment with Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 down to meet the game where it is, and in doing so, finds something interesting.

The arrival of Hollow Knight: Silksong brought with it a surprisingly robust discursive upswell. Grace Benfell found Team Cherry’s refusal to provide review codes to game outlets concerning, an indication of declining respect for criticism writ large. The resulting discussion saw various critics, like Joshua Rivera and Nick Capozzoli, chime in on the state of criticism. Steven Santana, at Breaking Arrows, made the compelling argument to leave the discourse cycle behind entirely—by becoming better versed in games criticism’s more distant past.

Ball is Life

Sports are games. Sports are games! Some of the most incredible moments this year happened around a sport, such as when Oklahoma City won its first-ever NBA championship, or when the Dodgers just barely beat the Toronto Blue Jays in extra innings to win the World Series. These writers helped us better reckon with the cultural importance of these beautiful games, often through the lens of their virtual counterparts.

  • A Beautiful Game | SuperJump
    Jacob Self writes about how Rematch, the follow-up title from Sifu developer Sloclap, viscerally puts players in the shoes of a single football player as opposed to more abstracted games like EA FC26, and therefore works better at capturing the essence of football.
  • If You’re Not The Ref, Lose The Whistle | Unwinnable
    Wallace Truesdale, on the same wavelength as Self, thinks about what it means to lovingly recreate the spirit of the game as Sloclap has with Rematch, and contends with the uniquely-virtual problem of players threatening to report ball hogs.
  • THE GREAT ONES NEVER LOSE. THEY JUST RUN OUT OF TIME. | Lifebar Magazine
    Will Borger reckons with the passage of time inside and outside EA’s Madden, and in doing so comes to terms with his enjoyment of a game—and a sport—thought to be uncommon among the games-are-art crowd.
  • This Moonlighting | Basketball Feelings
    Basketball fan Katie Heindl reflects on what it means to be swept up in the passion throes of another sports fandom for a time, and how it feels to be a spectator on the highs and the lows.
  • To Lose Is To Care | Tearing Down The Dam
    Sophie Grace processes her emotions following an historic World Series matchup between the Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays.

I think that’s what I want from a game. I want it to make me care before it rips my heart out.

We Live In A Society

From BDS boycotts to porn bans, this year was maybe the most tumultuous year for people who believe in a clear, impenetrable distinction between games and politics, or games and any sort of broader culture. These writers helped us put these moments of upheaval into their proper context.

“I believed Baby Steps‘ not so subtle theme involving the perils of male isolation would be lost on me. I like people! My friends are great! I don’t have many hangups about what it means to be a man, I thought! After spending time with Nate and the many strangers met on the mountainside, I take my lesson. It’s okay to admit that these setbacks of mine have been hard. It’s okay to tell you that this cycle of rehabilitation has been frustrating. It’s okay to get out there and try even if I embarrass myself in front of strangers because friends always start as strangers.”

Games Are Theater

When we talk about games-as-art, it can be easy in the popular imagination to think of galleries full of static images of various games, screenshots in lieu of gameplay, a lack of participation. These writers, through interviews and criticism, propose another way to think about games: as theater, where the boundaries between participant and audience blur. Whether dev or player, we are all in some way performing as we play.

“There was no concrete moment of “I am female” epiphany, but each positive interaction and each moment of comfort in that avatar skin moved the needle a little further towards understanding my own identity. Gaia Online was essentially my gender sandbox. It gave me the courage to later explore femininity in more serious ways, because I had a validating experience there.”

Games In Community

Part of recognizing that we live in a society is understanding that society includes other people. Often when we play it’s by ourselves, isolated from others, but just as often we play with our families, our friends, our children, our neighbors.

“I think about blockbuster movies and AAA video games as cathedrals – the only way regular people get to see what millions and millions of dollars look like. Much like Gothic cathedrals demonstrated the emerging wealth and power of the church, these productions demonstrate corporate power.”

Experiences Of Play

Playing games can lead to major revelations, or to quiet realizations. These writers reckon with both as they play through a myriad of titles.

“Holding space for contemplation or taking in the pleasant concept art of a game is a valid reason for excluding interaction in certain moments during play. I don’t think doing nothing is always the right aesthetic choice; sometimes we want to demonstrate how silence and inaction can be harmful to others we could be helping . . . but I also think there are moments where players should be reminded of the importance of just being and appreciating the medium.” 

Gameworlds

Ludic environments are fertile ground for meaningful conversations. Here, these writers explore different gameworlds as developers, players and spectators.

“i lay in the dark room dreaming of a thing to play. it’s perhaps a red ball that goes across a course, of obstacles. and they were placed there by the scientist. because the scientist wanted to study the red ball, for its abilities.”

History

Here we see various perspectives on the branching and complex history of games and game development.

The Games of 2025

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Sandfall Interactive was hands-down one of the most talked-about games of the year. The conversation surrounding the game has been, needless to say, all over the place.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

After spending years in an almost mythic state, Silksong finally launched in September. These writers tackled it for what it was; this is what they found.

Death Stranding 2

Death Stranding dared to ask why we aren’t all more connected, and its release coincided with the worst pandemic in our lifetimes. With Death Stranding 2, it seems like Kojima got the answer to his question and had some regrets. These writers had a lot to say about the results.

Despelote

Nominally a sports game, Despelote struck a profound chord in critics for its earnest and autobiographical childhood memory narrative, hand-drawn animations and incredibly grounded sense of place: in the middle of Quito, Ecuador in 2001 during the leadup to the 2002 World Cup.

Silent Hill f

Silent Hill f, the Ryukishi07-written latest installment in Konami’s long-running horror series, seemed to take critics by surprise, for better or ill. These writers put the game in context with the modern horror game landscape, feminist discourse and whether or not it sucks to fight in these games by accident or on purpose.

Blue Prince

With its heavy RNG, complex puzzles and intricate story of failed revolution, Blue Prince quickly became an early contender on a lot of critics’ Game of the Year lists. The writers in this section did their best to reckon with the game’s at-times obtuse mechanics to get at its humanist heart.

Hades 2

One of the more unexpected trends in 2025 was the way Supergiant Games’ Hades II was covered. After the first one received a sort of critical darling status in 2020, its sequel has soured on the vine of greater expectations.

Critical Goodie Bag

The following pieces were harder to classify, covering more unique subjects and games than the broader discursive lightning rods listed above.

“This is Shin Megami Tensei, this is Dungeon Meshi, this is Earthbound, this is Pokemon and this is Dark Souls. This is Planescape Torment, this is Binding of Isaac and this is Morrowind. This is why people play Dungeons and Dragons in real life, this is the worth of a good Dungeon Master, a moment of pure authorship that takes the experience beyond the mechanical. After this moment, you never know what could be on the next tile, and you’re never sure where the boundaries are.”

Endnotes

And that’s a wrap for 2025! But before we go, I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts and one last little gift basket of articles to take with you into the rest of this week and the new year. By any metric, 2025 was undoubtedly a rough time for everyone. I can only speak for myself here but there were a few months where it felt like simply hanging on and keeping things going as they have been was more than enough work to do. But we made it, and by god, 2026 is going to be different.

I don’t know exactly what we have in store for you here at Critical Distance in the new year, but I can tell you that we’ve been having discussions about bringing back certain features that we used to publish regularly. Things like Critical Compilations, maybe, or Blogs of the Round Table. Nothing is set in stone on any of those fronts, but whatever we end up doing I can tell you this for certain: we’re long past due for an overhaul on old and expired roundup links. I’m personally taking this project on, and I’m going to be working on creating a searchable database of Critical Distance roundups going all the way back to the beginning in 2009, with the primary goal of ensuring that all links work and the secondary goal of creating a kind of heat map of games criticism through the lens of Critical Distance roundups through the years. This is going to be a long-term, very ongoing project, but I will be providing updates on it in our monthly Patreon posts as things progress.

That’s it from me! You might hear from us again soon, and you’ll definitely be able to catch Chris in the first official roundup of 2026 later this week. But first, one more thing…

This Week in Videogame Blogging, December 28, 2025*

Welcome back, readers! With Chris taking off on the final week I wanted to help them stay afloat by sharing a handful of insightful pieces of games criticism written here at the end of the year.

*Don’t worry about the date, just pretend. Play in the space with me.

As always, if you appreciate our work, Patreon support is what allows us to continue doing it.

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

RPG Histories

First up, two posts on different historical curiosities in the RPG space.

“Suffice to say that upon release, there was no other JRPG like OreShika available in Western markets. Which is also to say that OreShika, like many other games which went unlocalized for similar reasons, disrupts fixed Western notions of what constitutes the genre, something that Masuda has continuously challenged in his work. It is a game for, following in the ethos of Metal Max, those who have grown tired of slaying dragons.”

Mechanics in Tension

Next we have three works on the function of mechanics as narrative—and even metanarrative—signifiers.

“I wailed to myself. I had fucked up again. I had somehow managed to once again get a game completely wrong.

The game whispered, ‘I forgive you; I forgive you; I forgive you.'”

Developer Insights

Here’s a pair of developer interviews that cover a broad range of topics, from developing according to a sense of place and aesthetics to unexpected legal challenges.

“I think a lot about the fact that you do put something of yourself in a game, always. The kind of setting that you choose, the kind of things that you do when you make art in general it’s always a reflection of the person who makes it, and that’s also why Sarah is an artist, and John as well in a way as a game developer.”

Critical Chaser

Polygon rings in a new year in New York, and along with it, a new mayor.

“Kaso-Machi feels like a lost cause. And yet, it’s still full of weirdos willing to fight for the place they call home. One loudmouthed pinky inspires someone else to speak up. The voices come together until a whisper turns into a roar. Together, the powerless gain the power to topple mountains, or at least halt a political inevitability.”