The Absolute State Of 2025

Signing Off This Year, One Last Time

Ladies, gentlemen, everything betwixt and adjacent, 2025 is almost over.

It’s that time of year when the proverbial Christmas Truce arrives: when the hyperactive, Dorito-encrusted Xbox fans, boring, graphics-obsessed normie PlayStation fans, fat, jaded and old Nintendo players and the terminally online, suspiciously smelly Steam aficionados come out of their subreddits and Discords to engage with the one thing we all fear most the dreaded real world.

For the next week we all share in the collective experience of being forced to endure in-laws that you see once a year for reasons everyone knows but refuses to acknowledge, celebrating a holiday that’s meant to be on the 7th of January in December and worshipping only rampant consumerism. If you’re in the UK and Commonwealth you just might be subjected to the King’s Speech: an annual event where we all pretend the UK still leads the world in anything other than internet censorship and shitty weather and where many of us sit convinced by tens of hours of Paradox games that we could take his job and do better, launching a rapid campaign across Ireland to be concluded by March… that last part might just be me.

“Woah, Scanlines!” I can hear you saying. “You really know how to get us all in the Christmas spirit!”

I’m a natural pessimist. I generally hold the view that the majority of things are going to get worse, not better and that the best of times have passed, that being said, this has been an excellent year for gaming and one I have enjoyed more than any since maybe 2019. The level of quality this year, writing for this Substack along with the launch of the Switch 2 have reignited my passion for certain spheres of this medium and have changed my relationship with games as a whole.

Today, I’ll be going over some of my favourite and least favourite parts of this year’s games industry and giving you all a Christmas message.

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My Favourite Games Of The Year

I was originally planning to do a Scanlines Game Of The Year but A: Everybody and their dog is doing that right now, can’t be following suit and B: A definitive ‘Game Of The Year’ has always seemed a bit pointless to me; Clair Obscur is a genre defining masterpiece for JRPG fans but for those who aren’t into the genre its quality means nothing, they won’t enjoy it. Beyond objective technical measurements like framerate, load times and texture detail, video games are entirely subjective, so labelling a single title as the undisputed best across the past 12 months regardless of genre and demographic doesn’t make much sense, at least in my eyes.

Instead of that, I’ll be listing the three games I enjoyed the most this year, in no particular order.

Europa Universalis 5

A screenshot from a particularly spirited Byzantium game I had going.

In the run up to EU5’s release I was hopeful yet highly sceptical. Paradox have had a very uneven decade so far with Crusader Kings 3 largely feeling like a casualised version of its predecessor, Victoria 3 only just feeling like a finished product and both Europa Universalis 4 and Hearts Of Iron 4 suffering high profile, catastrophic DLC failures.

EU5 is a game I’m going to be writing about in the Spring once I have the initial hundred hours under my belt but so far I’m loving it, so much so that HOI4 and its latest DLC have been gathering dust in my Steam library. Not even bought it, nor the latest for Victoria.

Mario Kart World

A screenshot I took Kongin’ around.

Mario Kart World has been getting a beating on YouTube, Reddit and other online gathering places for its ill-fated online mode updates and the lack of things to do in its Free-Roam Mode but I stand by my review back in June. I love this game.

The Wombo Combo

This was pretty much it as far as Switch 2 launch titles went but I didn’t care at all. The Knockout Tour mode is insanely addictive, I love the look of MKW and the newfound driving technicality adds a lot to the experience. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Oblivion Remastered

A stunning view of the infested woods.

This one feels a bit cheap but hear me out: this was my first time seriously playing Oblivion for about a decade and this remaster happened to shadow drop around the time I was finishing building my current rig. Sitting down after a weekend of PC building and booting this up to finally play my new machine is a fond memory I will hold for years to come.

Oblivion Remastered has some technical issues, especially on console and it doesn’t really fix some of the game’s biggest issues but the graphics blew me away and I thoroughly enjoyed going back to this classic. I hope it’s Morrowind next but not holding my breath.

Honourable Mention: Donkey Kong Bananza

DK Bananza is an excellent game: probably the best Switch 2 exclusive so far, the only reason it didn’t earn its place at the top is because I burned out on this game really hard. It lacks staying power.

After 20 hours of play and just over half of the story and Banandium Gems collected I felt thoroughly tired of playing Bananza and haven’t touched it since August. I recommend it but maybe focus on the story first rather than a completionist run like me.

I’m not interested in either Clair Obscur or Silksong, that’s why they’re not here, stop throwing those damn tomatoes.

Honourable Mention: Octopath Traveler 0

I’m always trying to expand and refine my taste in videogames so this year I had a crack at playing some JRPG’s which is a genre I haven’t gotten on with in the past.

I'm Playing My First JRPG

Back in April I had a go at Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii-U. I enjoyed the game’s combat and open world a lot but with the online features gone it became far too grindy and about 35 hours in, I threw in the towel. I’ll revisit this one once it gets a Switch 2 upgrade.

Octopath Traveler 0 happened to launch on the same day as Metroid Prime 4 and my delayed copy of that game meant I had about half a week to sit with this one and get to know it with no distractions. To be completely honest, it’s come to outshine Prime 4 for me and has been a wonderful experience that makes me eager to play more of these games, maybe a Dragon Quest next.

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The Hall Of Infamy

2025 Has been pretty excellent for gaming but inevitably, it has still produced some slop and some facepalm-worthy moments, this section will be dedicated to those: the shittest moments in this year’s gaming.

The Skyrim Switch 2 Port

Skyrim on the Switch 2 is a horrendous port and one that I’m pretty miffed about. Skyrim isn’t my favourite Elder Scrolls game but it’s still incredibly solid and the allure of 60FPS Skyrim in handheld was high enough to have it on my wishlist… but you won’t find that here.

Skyrim launched in 2011 yet Bethesda are completely incapable of getting it to hit 60FPS on Nintendo’s new console which is capable of PS4-like power in handheld mode, even worse, the input delay is so severe that movement only takes place once the analogue stick has returned to a neutral, upright position. Baffling.

For those tempted to blame Nintendo’s hardware, this is the same console that can run Cyberpunk: the entire game, no corners cut, at a stable 50FPS with strong visual fidelity. Bethesda are clueless.

Price Hikes Galore

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not fundamentally against AI, I just despise how it’s being used and the way in which it seems to be making all tech worse and the price-hikes are a likely symptom of this.

For those out of the loop, RAM prices are at an all time high and GPU prices are soon to follow, this makes all hardware more costly to manufacture leading to all three of the major console manufacturers putting up prices on their machines; rumour has it that the Steam Machine won’t arrive until the situation improves.

Outside of hardware both Microsoft and Nintendo have been making some seriously scummy moves with their subscription services, the former hiking Game Pass Ultimate prices up to extortionate levels and the latter locking the Switch 2’s Game Chat feature behind a Switch Online Membership but only after March 2026 in a cynical attempt to get people hooked on the feature.

Tekken 8’s Season 2

Anna Williams: the poster child for Tekken 8 at its lowest.

This one is a little more niche but for those who know… I’m sure you agree.

Tekken 8 is a game I have just shy of 500 hours in, I used to play it for hours daily, spend evenings labbing combos, sparring competitive-level players and heading out into ranked while getting real-time advice from a Discord. Around October last year I grew too frustrated with the Season 1 issues and decided to drop the game until Season 2.

To cut a long story short, Season 2 was delayed and then launched with changes that doubled down on everything bad about Tekken 8; I haven’t played the game since April. I’m hoping things improve but with Harada: the head of the franchise gone at the end of the year, it looks pretty bleak.

The Death Of Xbox

Microsoft has always and will always be a software company; back in 2001, the idea that they could even manufacture a console was considered lunacy. Once the Xbox and the following 360 proved to be 2 of the greatest, most innovative consoles ever made, the mocking voices soon fell silent.

Much like the UK though, since 2009-ish the Xbox brand has been on a steady decline, hastened by the disastrous Xbox One and the terminal decay of the console’s first party exclusives. We all knew things were bad but in 2025 I think it finally became clear that Xbox was no longer going to be a console but a hardware branding like Razer or Alienware: a logo for Microsoft to stick on other people’s machines with onboard Game Pass while they cannibalise the rest of the company to chase the allure of AI.

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The Comment Awards

Since my first post back on the 5th of January I’ve gotten a lot of reads, a lot of likes and a lot of comments on my work. Many have been in agreement with my writing, some have been respectful expressions of differing opinion and just a few have made me burst out laughing. It’s time to highlight some of the best (and a couple of the worst) comments I’ve received this year.

Expedition 2 On The NES

In my Game Awards piss take post, I made a joke about how convoluted and long-running most JRPG series are.

My Picks For The 2025 Game Awards

‘I’ve not played Expedition 33 because I’m new to the series and will probably start with Expedition 2 on the NES’ is a line I included under a fake GOTY nomination for the shitty Xbox 360 RPG Two Worlds. The Game Enjoyer picked up on exactly what I was going for and wrote the following comment, which had me laughing at my keyboard.

Well-played.

Slow And Steady

Substack’s gaming writers, from my perspective, overwhelmingly skew towards legitimate journalism or indie gaming, so when I write I’m under no illusions that my articles are taken very seriously or that I’m anybody’s favourite page here; Scanlines’ Journal is essentially a blog that takes itself a bit too seriously: the writings of a hobbyist, inelegant writings at that.

All of that being said there are three things that keep me writing here. Number 1 is habit. Number 2 is the fact that two of you are paying money to read this and number 3 is that I genuinely believe I write the best reviews on this platform. Supporting this belief is this comment from Matt: the nicest I’ve ever received. It’s full of heartfelt compliments and reflections on our relationship to gaming and time as we grow older.

Back To The Past

My first ever post on Substack, back when I wanted to stick to indie and N64 FPS games, was a review of the classic Goldeneye 007

27 Years Later, is Goldeneye 007 Still Worth Playing?

I’ve always been quite happy with how this post turned out and over the course of the year, with me plugging it every now and then, it has gradually garnered just shy of 300 reads which I’m very pleased about. 2 Substackers though: M. Campassi and Peter Monks took it to the next level back in the Summer and were kind enough to drop comments, giving the review a second life with a bit of discussion had.

Well, we’ve had lots of sweet now I gotta get sour.

I’m going to say this here and now so nobody can get it twisted: I’m not a feminist, I’m not an activist, I’m not a conservative, I’m not a liberal, I’m not a republican, I’m not a democrat. I cannot and will not be labelled. My world view and criticism is not based on ideology and my identity is not based on conforming to a particular group or tribe, I am only ever going to write what I alone think and feel.

Feel free to disagree with me and I’ll happily be called out and debated if you’re not absolutely deranged but if your image of me is linked to some kind of stereotype or ideological position then I can assure you, I’m a lot less interesting and consistent than that.

My worst comments this year all came from people who are determined to stick some kind of label on me.

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We Are Everywhere

Every country I know of where a Scanlines’ Journal subscriber exists is highlighted in red.

*I didn’t forget you my Greek subscribers, for reasons unknown it wouldn’t let me highlight your country.

Scanlines’ Journal’s audience is made up of readers from across every continent on Earth: 42 different countries, 32 US states and more time zones and languages than I can possibly count. I started this Substack back in January with the lowest expectations possible. You see, I’m a bit of a loser with not much going on with me or for me in life at the moment, so I was able to go all in this year writing day and night. I expected to have 20-30 subscribers at the very most by Summer, when I would slip away quietly from the platform never to be seen again, writing this off as another failure… but that’s not what happened.

I don’t know how but I’ve found myself with a following of just under 300 people, with my work being read from Santiago to Sapporo and from Copenhagen to Cape Town. Grateful isn’t an adequate enough word. I’m overwhelmed by the global reach of this Substack, I’m humbled by those who have donated and I take pride in the fact that real people and real gamers are winning. We live in a world where writing is viewed as tedious busywork and a thing of the past: something you delegate to AI or do for administration, not for pleasure. Reviewers are bought on the regular and plied with freebies to the extent where traditional gaming media cannot be trusted.

Not one game was gifted to me by a publisher or developer, not one sentence, letter or fucking comma of Scanlines’ Journal was written by a machine. The difference between you and me is that I have too much time on my hands. I take pride in not wearing the journalist label and I take pride in being an honest to goodness gamer with a voice so many of you have come to trust.

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A Festive Farewell

Scanlines’ Journal has a global reach at this point and I wanted to give you all the most sincere farewell possible before the New Year, so I decided to handwrite a message to all of you, in your own tongues: straight to the heart.

Please forgive any translation errors or shoddy handwriting, I only speak English and Russian and my third language: Spanish is at a level I can only describe as muy guácala.

The Anglosphere

La Hispanosfera

Brasil e Portugal

France et Belgique

Nederland en België

Österreich und Deutschland

Italia

Danmark

Sverige

Suomi

Polska

Česko

Србија

Shqipëria

Türkiye

Ελλάδα

Unfortunately, the languages from here on became too difficult for me to replicate by hand. From here on I will have to go for straight-up translations.

فارس

برای مشترکین ایرانی‌ام آرزوی سلامتی و سال نو خوبی دارم :)

پاکستان

میرے پاکستانی سبسکرائبرز کے لیے، میں آپ کو اچھی صحت اور نیا سال مبارک ہو۔ :)

भारत

मेरे भारतीय सब्सक्राइबर्स को मेरी शुभकामनाएं, अच्छे स्वास्थ्य और नव वर्ष की हार्दिक बधाई। :)

ประเทศไทย

ถึงสมาชิกชาวไทยทุกท่าน ขอให้ทุกท่านมีสุขภาพแข็งแรงและมีความสุขในวันปีใหม่ :)

Việt Nam

Gửi đến những người đăng ký kênh của tôi tại Việt Nam, tôi chúc các bạn sức khỏe dồi dào và một năm mới hạnh phúc :)

日本

日本の購読者の皆様、健康と幸せな新年をお祈りします :)

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It’s been a long year, I’ve lost pets, sleep and sanity while writing this Substack. Every moment has been worth it.

To my knowledge there have been only 4 weeks this whole year where I haven’t published anything, my wrist aches from typing and my brain is fried from 2 posts every single week. I drink maybe once every 2 months so if you excuse me, I’ve got a lovely EU5 Milan going on right now and there’s a bottle of whisky with my name on it.

I’ll see you in January.