I didn’t set out to “play through the year.”
I just kept opening games out of curiosity, boredom, and the quiet hope something would click.
Some of them did.
Some of them absolutely did not.
All of them, somehow, told me something about how I spend my time now.
Not in a motivational-poster way.
More like a “huh… that explains a lot” way.
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This Wasn’t a Backlog Year. It Was a Vibes Year.
I didn’t chase releases.
I chased moods.
Some nights I wanted chaos.
Some nights I wanted silence.
Some nights I just wanted to chill with my family in the lobby and change our Fortnite skins.
That alone says more about modern gaming than any Steam review ever could.
LEGO Fortnite — Comfort Gaming Is a Thing
I played this the way people watch the same sitcom for the fifth time.
Low stakes.
Familiar sounds.
Nothing yelling at me to optimize.
It wasn’t deep.
It wasn’t trying to be.
And honestly? That was the point.
I can hear Brutes from a mile away with my HyperX Cloud 3 Wireless Headphones.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 — Skill Isn’t the Hook Anymore
I’ve played enough Call of Duty to know when I’m supposed to be mad.
But what stuck out wasn’t the gunplay.
It was the rhythm.
Jump in.
Talk trash.
Disappear.
COD is less a game and more a social temperature check.
You can tell how people are doing by how they play it.
Lord knows your controller gets sweaty when you play this game. I got my PlayVital Case for my XBox Elite Series 2.
F1 25 — Control Feels Good Until It Doesn’t
There’s something soothing about shaving milliseconds off a lap.
It scratches the same itch as reorganizing a desk or tweaking stream settings at 2 a.m.
Total control. Clear feedback.
And then one mistake ruins everything.
Which feels… familiar.
I don’t have a wheel, but my Scuf Elite Series 2 Paddles make shifting so much fun.
Blue Prince — Games That Don’t Explain Themselves
This one didn’t care if I “got it.”
No onboarding TED Talk.
No gentle hand-holding.
It trusted me to sit with confusion long enough for curiosity to kick in.
That felt rare.
Almost rude.
I loved it.
This one is where I started conversing with chat more. I’m constantly being told the mic on my HyperX Cloud 3 Wireless Headphones sounds nice and crisp.
Red Dead Redemption 2 — Slowness as a Feature
I didn’t rush this.
I couldn’t.
This game forces you to live in it.
Long rides. Quiet moments. Conversations that breathe.
It made modern games feel like they’re all talking too fast.
PGA 2K25 — Failure Without Spectacle
Golf games are honest in a way shooters aren’t.
Miss the shot?
That’s on you.
No lag excuses.
No teammates to blame.
Just vibes, wind, and humility.
High on Life — When Humor Lands (And When It Doesn’t)
This one walked a tightrope.
Sometimes it nailed the joke.
Sometimes it reminded me humor is incredibly subjective and incredibly risky.
Still respected the swing.
The colors in this game looked awesome on my Acer Nitro Monitor.
R.E.P.O. — Small Games, Big Personality
Not everything needs a franchise.
This felt like someone made exactly the game they wanted to play.
And invited the rest of us along.
Those games always hit different.
This was also the first game I was forced to use a my SteelSeries Apex 3 Keyboard and Logitech Mouse.
Goat Simulator 3 — Chaos as Community
Nobody boots this up to be alone.
It’s a shared joke.
A digital inside laugh.
Which, honestly, is half of gaming now anyway.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order — Familiar Stories Still Work
I knew where it was going.
I still went.
Sometimes the comfort is in knowing the arc.
You don’t need surprises.
You need execution.
Fortnite Zero Build — Accessibility Changed Everything
Removing building didn’t “dumb it down.”
It widened the door to people who just wanted to play without homework.
That shift matters more than most people admit.
Alan Wake 2 — When Games Get Weird on Purpose
This wasn’t trying to be fun.
It was trying to be something.
Those games don’t hit for everyone.
But when they do, they linger.
I didn’t even use my Selfie Ring Light for this one, I kept it pitch black in my room.
Skate — Muscle Memory Is a Time Machine
I didn’t have to relearn it.
I had to learn it.
There’s something comforting about a community welcoming you in.
Like that Upperclassman that showed you around the school.
RV There Yet? — Quiet Games Hit Harder Than Loud Ones
This surprised me.
No rush.
No scoreboard.
Just movement, space, and reflection.
Which might be the most underrated genre there is.
ARC Raiders — The One That Stuck
And then there’s this one.
I didn’t plan to stay here.
I just… didn’t leave.
The loop is clean.
The tension is earned.
The conversations feel real.
This is where the streams got better.
Not louder, better.
It feels like a place, not a product.
And yeah, I’ll probably still be here all of 2026.
What This Year Quietly Taught Me
Every game asked something different of me.
Patience.
Trust.
Attention.
Presence.
And the one that stuck wasn’t the flashiest or the loudest.
It was the one that made space for people to exist together without forcing it.
Which feels like a pretty accurate snapshot of how we connect online now.
I didn’t plan this year.
I lived it one game at a time.
And I’m not totally done talking about it.